Changing Tune
by stilldeluded
Summary: When an Anbu ninja spares her life, Tayuya is left with an old hag they call the Hokage to interrogate her. When the Hokage makes her a deal in return for information, will it be the first step needed to change the Sound Ninja's tune? Will Tayuya accept?
1. Survivor

**DISCLAIMER: I do not in anyway own Naruto or any of its characters. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto. That would be nice if I did though.**

**Author's Note: Right...No Idea...Let's see...This is my first fanfiction...I'm proud of it and hope you are too. This is the first chapter so start reading...Hell you probably already have...honestly who reads the author's notes lol. jk. jk. I'm actually happy if you did read this. It shows you care about the author too. lolz. Anyway, I'll shut up now. On with the fic.**

The skies of Konoha were caked in an orange hue as the sun continued its descent over the forest in the west; the trees' shadows grew smaller and smaller with each minute that passed. Normally such an insignificant detail would not matter, but as another minute ticked by the shadow of an oak tree near the outer western wall of Konoha began to bulge out.

"…Damn," the anbu sighed moving his foot erasing the shadow's 'bulge' in the process, but it was too late as one of his fellow shinobi appeared at his feet. Looking up, he regarded the person for a second before sighing again. 'Of all the people they could have sent to find me, it had to be her,' he thought.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" the woman bellowed. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU?!"

The anbu remained silent deciding it was better to not add fuel to the flame as the woman continued her vicious rant. To tell the truth he had stopped listening a little while ago. After all when she started ranting it was always redundant. But he would never tell--

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!"

The man sighed. "I'm lazier than the whole Nara family put together. Blah blah blah. I can't believe you made it into anbu. Insult insult insult. Did I miss anything?" So much for staying silent.

The woman responded simply by glaring into the anbu's skull. The man sighed again before getting up and popping his back and neck joints into place.

"So is there a reason why you were looking for me?" he asked.

"We've been given an A-rank mission. Recover the bodies of three deceased sound ninja left behind during the Uchiha Retrieval Mission earlier today: Jirobo, Kidomaru, and Tayuya of the Sound Four. The body of Sakon was brought in earlier by Kankuro of the Sand Village. Each of these ninja was considered A-rank in Konoha's Bingo Book. According to the Hokage they're bodies are located in the eastern forest. The exact coordinates aren't specified." The woman explained to him without softening her glare in the slightest.

"You know you could have just said 'A-rank mission: collect dead guys' and saved me from listening to all that other textbook crap you spilled out of your mouth." The man replied leaping off the branch and towards his objective before his words could sink into the already angered kunoichi.

"HOW DARE YOU! WHEN I CATCH YOU I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!!" the woman screamed in fury before chasing after him. Hearing this, the man chuckled before picking up the pace so he could keep a safe distance away from his raging teammate.

* * *

After ten minutes of tree hopping and one ass kicking, the two shinobi came upon a clearing with a massive crater located in the center. Inside the crater lay the body of Jirobo staring lifelessly up at the sky. The anbu sweat dropped. There was no way in hell he was carrying that fat ass. He looked at his teammate and came to a solution for his problem.

"I'm going ahead to get the other bodies. I trust you can take care of everything here. See ya." The anbu said before vanishing into the forest without giving the woman a chance to argue.

As the anbu continued his trek through the forest he swore he heard a voice yelling obscenities and cursing his name, but decided he was just hearing things. 'Aw well,' he thought. 'She had it coming to her when she dumped me for another guy.'

Thoughts on the past began to dull the anbu's senses. He took out a kunai and pricked his finger. The pain was just enough to recollect his mind. "No use thinking about the past so snap out of it." He said reprehending himself.

He regained his thoughts just in time. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a tree with a giant hole in its base. If he hadn't regained his thoughts at that second he would have missed the second battle sight, and thus the second body completely.

As the anbu approached the wreckage of the battle he observed the unnecessary amount of kunai planted in the dirt and the spider webs hanging from the trees before making an assiduous observation.

'This guy must like to play with his food before eating it. 'That screwed him sideways.' The anbu thought chuckling at his remark.

With that thought in his mind, the anbu continued observing the battlefield until he finally caught a glimpse of the second body. Kidomaru was lying on the ground without much signs of injury. But upon checking his vitals, it was obvious that he was dead. The anbu sighed before hoisting the corpse up onto his muscular frame. Once he secured the body to his back, he continued his mission.

* * *

"Damn it…how far away is this other body?" The anbu questioned starting to get annoyed. Why couldn't the shinobi that killed them bring the bodies back! It had been nearly four hours since he picked up Kidomaru and to say the least his back was starting to hurt! After all he wasn't Gai Maito!

It was night now and it was getting harder to see with every passing minute. The male anbu had almost tripped three times now. Any normal ninja would have stopped and called it a night, but because of the threat of Sound ninja coming to recover the body and the male anbu's bullheadedness the trek continued.

That is, until he jumped for the next tree only to meet air. As the anbu plummeted towards the ground he released his hold on Kidomaru and started going through hand signs as fast as he could before finishing and yelling out his jutsu.

The jutsu was successful. The anbu's plummeting slowed to a sudden stop before he landed softly on the ground below. The anbu looked up quickly towards Kidomaru's falling body and caught him before slinging him over his shoulder. After wiping the perspiration off his face, the anbu started looking around for the reason he fell. He felt stupid. Why didn't he notice that the trees around this area had been sliced down?

'Honestly, what kinds of ninja are being bred these days? Mother nature must be pissed off with this mess.' He thought amusedly. 'Well whatever works to get the job done. Which reminds me--where's that body?'

The anbu, now refocused, continued his search for the final body. The night sky shrouded the area in darkness forcing the anbu to search harder. After searching the area for nearly ten minutes, the anbu thought he saw a lumber pile in the distance. Giving it no second thought the anbu retightened his grip on Kidomaru and hurried towards the pile. He knew. He didn't know why, but he just knew the last body would be there.

His hunch did not prove fruitless. The final body was resting peacefully in the middle of the lumber pile. Tayuya of the Sound.

'Such sad fates for kids so young' the man thought dejectedly as he began basic anbu protocol. He began by recording the position of the body in his notepad. Her arms and legs were pinned down (and probably broken) underneath the lumber pile. Her body below her stomach was jutting out and her head was tilted back with the top of her head aimed toward the ground and her chin aimed toward the sky.

"Wait a minute…"The anbu stopped writing for a second and looked down at Tayuya then at his notepad in the darkness. "I can't write in the dark…" The anbu then set his notepad and Kidomaru down on the ground, turned around, and started a hand sign for a fire jutsu, but stopped and paled considerably. "FUCK! I forgot to write a report on Kidomaru!" The anbu yelled. "How DID I get into the anbu! I can't even remember to write a damn report for the Hokage!!"

Something stirred. The anbu had only caught a glimpse of it out the corner of his eye. He whirled around quickly pulling out a kunai and preparing for the worst. What he saw when he turned around shocked him. Tayuya of the Sound was sitting up. Well trying to sit up. She grimaced in pain before lying back down, since her arms and legs were pinned down (and definitely broken).

"Where the hell am I?" Tayuya asked herself before turning her head and noticing the anbu. The anbu was still recovering from the shock of seeing a corpse get up. She glared at him. "Who the fuck are you?"

This snapped the anbu out of his shocked state. Still he thought he should prick his finger to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Ow! Nope, not dreaming.

The anbu sighed, knowing what had to be done since the enemy was alive. He looked down into her glaring brown eyes. That glare. It reminded him of someone. But who?

"You're not making my job easy by being alive. Here I went through all the trouble of writing corpse details just for you, and then you wake up. Just make this easier for me and have an aneurism." He said hoisting the kunai he had took out earlier above her head.

Tayuya smirked up at him. "What's wrong, trash? Can't even do your job? Or are you just another lazy bastard bitching about playing ninja?"

The anbu glared down at her. Well at least she was making this easier for him. He was about to plant the kunai in her skull, but she spoke again stopping him. 'Might as well let her say her final words,' he thought.

"--of that shadow freak"

"Sorry, what was that?" the anbu asked not catching what she had said.

She was glaring at him again. "I SAID you remind me of that shadow freak I was fighting earlier. Fuck are you really THAT lazy that you can't even fucking listen?"

The anbu froze. His kunai slipped out of his fingers. 'This girl…she's…she's just like…albeit she does cuss a lot more.' He thought as memories of the woman he had seen just earlier this evening began to flood his mind.

Tayuya just looked up at him. "So are you going to kill me any time soon? I'm ready to go wherever the fuck it is you go when you die." She said in a bored tone.

The anbu snapped out of his reverie. He looked down at her and sighed picking up his kunai from where it fell. "Sorry," he said flinging the kunai toward her.

Tayuya closed her eyes readying herself for the afterlife. All was dark, but she felt no pain. She blinked and opened her eyes. It was still dark, except for the stars in the sky. She tilted her head towards the right and saw the kunai embedded in a small pocket notepad directly beside her.

"..but I'm afraid you're not gonna be biting the big one quite yet." The anbu smirked finishing his sentence. He began speeding through hand signs again before pushing his palm into the center of the lumber pile. In an instant the lumber pile burying Tayuya disintegrated into saw dust, freeing her from her 'would be' tomb.

The anbu looked in amusement at Tayuya's puzzled expression. Still he supposed he did owe her a reason for his behavior.

"Hey don't get the wrong idea; you're not off the hook. No, not by a long shot. I'm taking you back to the hidden leaf village for interrogation, and the hokage may not even want to interrogate you. If that's the case, the hokage will kill you right after my debriefing. Consider yourself the luckiest girl on the planet right now, because I'm sure if anyone else from anbu had done this mission you would've had that kunai in your head the moment you got up."

Tayuya just stared at the man for a few minutes before finally mumbling something incoherently.

"Come again?" the anbu inquired.

"Fuck. You. You. Bastard." Tayuya said stressing each word very slowly making the anbu feel kind of retarded.

He understood what she meant. Interrogation always meant one thing. Torture. Even so, he just couldn't bring himself to kill her. Maybe she was just going to die once she got back to the village, but at least it wasn't on his hands.

The anbu walked over to where he left Kidomaru and tossed him back onto his shoulder. The anbu then heard a gasp from Tayuya and sighed knowing it would be hard for her once she figured out the fate of the other members of the Sound Four.

"Well, I'm ready when you are." The anbu said waiting for Tayuya's reply. She simply responded by glaring at him and spitting on his boot. The anbu sighed again before hoisting Tayuya onto his other shoulder as gently as possible. She didn't resist. He knew the last thing she wanted to do was go with him, but with her arms and legs broken she couldn't put up a fight if she tried.

The anbu then did a final set of hand signs, and within an instant the clearing was quiet. No trace of a living or dead soul as the wind brushed against the pile of sawdust and scattered it little by little into the night sky.

**Author's Note: Alright. Congratulations!! You got through the first chapter. I knew you could do it. All I really have to say is that I hope you enjoyed it. I have the whole idea for this story in my head. I don't know when I'll get around to writing Chapter 2, but it shouldn't be too long. I hope. I know I made some mechanical errors somewhere. Some were on purpose, most of them probably weren't. If you spot any mechanical errors...chew me out about it lolz. But be nice. After all it is still my first story. I'm hoping I didn't make any spelling errors, because I get so sick of reading fanfics that are really good, but leave me to decipher what they were trying to spell. Anyway, just review. Tell me what you think of it. I LIKE REVIEWS! Oh, and if you have any questions you want to ask me...well just ask me. I will try to give you an answer IF it doesn't in some way spoil my story. Anyway, see you when I update.**


	2. Hospital Meetings

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto. It would be nice if I did though.**

**Author's Note: Let me just say this...WOW! I didn't expect so much attention. lolz. A couple days after I posted the first chapter I checked my e-mail and had around 30 different e-mails saying I've been put on Story Alert, Author Alert, Review Alert, Favorite Author, Favorite Story, the works. So thanks a lot. Don't worry though...that stuff doesn't get to my head that easily. Now to answer some questions...**

**avatarofdiscord: Naruto makes his first appearance this chapter. Lolz. Wouldn't be much of a Naru/Tayu if he wasn't in it.**

**crazyfoxdemon: If you've checked my profile, you know I'm the noob of fanfiction lol. Betas check grammar errors and all that stuff right? You'll have to explain that to me sometime. As for your other questions...Most of them can be answered this chapter.**

**Redd9: The anbu is an OC. Don't worry though, unlike other fanfictions where the OCs become main characters mine will be rather insignificant for the most part. I don't like OCs because they usually end up shadowing other characters that are important to the series. No offense to other people out there that use OCs...I mean...I used one right...**

**Anyway...I know you already started reading and totally skipped the author note...so I'll shut up for now...ON WITH THE FIC!!**

The view of the night sky from the window of the Hokage's tower was simply phenomenal. The stars and constellations were very bright tonight, complementing the Hokage Mountain in the distance. Tsunade hated nights like this. It only served as a reminder of the night that her beloved Dan died.

Tsunade closed the blinds on the window deciding that she'd had enough air for a while. Looking around the room, Tsunade finally set her eyes upon the pile of paperwork she had been sleeping on earlier. She whined; looking at the paperwork gave her a headache, but it came with the job sadly. Grabbing a bottle of sake from her secret stash behind the first hokage's portrait, she went over to her desk and began reading through the different bills awaiting her approval.

"Bill for Renovations and Additions to the Hokage Mountain." Tsunade read aloud already bored. "Sure, why not. Who doesn't want there face plastered on a mountain." Tsunade hammered the approval stamp onto the paper and signed her name before discarding the bill into her finished pile.

"Bill for the Restoration of Itsuki Onji's Restaurant." Tsunade read aloud again taking a swig of the sake. "Whatever." She said stamping her approval stamp and signing her name again.

"New genjutsu books for the Ninja Academy." Tsunade grumbled getting tired of this really fast. And the sake wasn't even giving her a buzz. Where's the fun in that? She sighed stamping her seal on the paper and signing her name.

After nearly an hour of signing bills and an empty bottle of sake, Tsunade just stopped. She couldn't take it anymore. She hit her head against the desk to calm her splitting headache, before deciding to take a quick nap.

Just when she was about to fall asleep, a whirlwind of leaves appeared in her office. Tsunade looked up to see a tall, well-toned anbu soldier with long, spiky black hair and a standard anbu face mask carrying two ninjas, one with six arms and one with long red hair, on each of his shoulders.

"Corpse duty reporting in." The anbu said throwing the six-armed corpse on his left shoulder towards the door and setting the red-haired corpse on his right shoulder as gently as possible in front of him. This did not go unnoticed by Tsunade, but she decided she would chew the anbu out before questioning him.

"Hideo, how many times must I tell you? You can't just barge in unannounced, unless it's a life or death situation!"

Hideo just tilted his head down in what Tsunade believed to be a dejected manner (after all she couldn't see his facial expression).

"Why? Why must all women shout at me? I'm not even a pervert like Kakashi-senpai, yet I get yelled at more than he does!" Hideo pouted sadly, milking his broken heart for all it was worth.

Tsunade wasn't buying it. Hideo always did this to try and make her feel bad, but that was only to get a lighter punishment after he'd done something to screw up a mission. Honestly. What can you do wrong while collecting corpses?

"Hideo, cut the crap. My head hurts and I don't feel like dealing with you right now. Tell me what you did, let me debrief you, and then get out." Tsunade said softly her headache being the only thing keeping her from yelling at him.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama, but I'm afraid I forgot to write my mission report. Please forgive me." Hideo replied falling down to the floor, putting his hands in front of him, and bowing apologetically.

"Tch. Grow some balls. Tell the hag the real reason you fucked up your mission. But it probably isn't necessary anymore, unless she's fucking retarded."

'A survivor…interesting,' Tsunade thought before taking in the words the survivor spoke. 'Wait a minute…'

Tsunade looked over her desk. The red-headed corpse/survivor that Hideo had set down just called her a hag! Her eye twitched. Nobody called her a hag and got away with it (living or dead).

Tsunade glared at the red-haired survivor/girl. The girl turned her head towards Tsunade quickly. 'She seemed to know that she was being watched,' Tsunade observed without softening her glare. As soon as the red-haired girl's eyes met her own, an all-out glare match ensued. Five minutes past with neither showing sign of backing down.

Tsunade smirked. 'This girl has a lot of spunk.' Tsunade blinked. The red-haired girl smirked. 'Damn, lost focus,' Tsunade thought conceding defeat.

Hideo sighed. "Forgive her, Hokage-sama. I do not think she knows how to show respect."

"Like you're one to talk," Tsunade said causing the anbu to give a nervous laugh. "Now then, I would really like to hear about this mission."

Hideo nodded before giving a detailed synopsis of the mission's events. Tsunade wasn't really listening until he started reporting his discovery of Tayuya. The Hokage listened intently to Hideo's description of how she was positioned under the logs. The Hokage then looked over at the girl giving a medical analysis with each area of her body dented inwards.

'Two broken shins, two broken ankles, a broken wrist, at least two broken ribs, and probably a crushed pelvis considering the amount of pressure on her. It would be a piece of cake compared to piecing Rock Lee's arm and leg bones back together (and he was even out of the hospital right after surgery).' Tsunade thought. 'She's lucky. If any normal doctor attempted healing her she'd probably keep those scar indentures for life.'

"Hokage-sama…uh…can I go now?" Hideo asked.

Tsunade jumped. She had forgotten he was here. "Yes, take Miss Tayuya to the emergency room, get Six-Arms to the autopsy room, and get out of my office! I'm heading over to the hospital now. She had better be there when I get there, or it's your head." Then, without letting him say anything, Tsunade got up from her desk and walked out the door.

Hideo was shocked. "What the fuck?! I got my ass handed to me for not using the front door! But YOU, an enemy sound ninja facing execution, get into a staring match with her and now she's going to heal you! You called her a HAG and she's going to heal you!" He vented. "Unbelievable. I'll never understand women."

Tayuya smirked. She had to admit that she agreed with the anbu on this one. Somehow, she had escaped certain death twice now. She must have gained a little of the Hokage's respect through that glaring match. Hell if she kept this up she might just be able to get out of this shithole of a village.

Tayuya cursed in pain. While she was busy planning her escape, the anbu had recklessly picked her up. "You fucking asshole! Did I say you could pick me up?!"

Hideo just slung her over his shoulder, ignoring her screams of pain. "Suck it up. You'll be better in no time. I'm not ready to lose my head, and besides, this makes me feel better about you getting off the hook."

Then for the second time that night, a whirlwind of leaves swept them away to a new place.

* * *

He was running. He had to catch up to him if it was the last thing he ever did. He ran after him, never letting up on his pursuit. He followed him over the massive bridge that extended to the wave country. He followed him through a dark forest. He fought a sand demon in his way to continue his pursuit. He followed him all the way to the top of the monument located in the Valley of the End.

"WAIT!" He cried resting on the head of the First Hokage. The friend he had chased for so long stopped on the head of Madara Uchiha and turned around.

His friend looked at him with a smirk on his face before replying. "We're nearly there. Don't tell me you're giving up now. Loser."

He looked at his friend for a moment before noticing a pale man standing right behind his friend. He tried to warn his friend, but it was too late. He looked in horror as the pale man bit into the left side of his friend's neck before dissolving into the ground below him.

He looked back at his friend. Darkness shrouded his body like a black haze. When the haze finally cleared, a demon resembling his friend came into view. The demon looked at him with a cold and deadly gaze.

"I will gain the power needed to avenge my clan. I will sever any bonds that I have made to gain that power." The demon said in a cold voice. "I live in the past. Not the present. So…I will cut my ties to the present." The demon began charging up a lightning ball in his hand. The sound the lightning gave off was that of a thousand birds.

He could only look in pity at what his friend had become. It was so fast he didn't even see it coming. The demon stabbed the lightning ball through him. The last thing he saw was the demon…his friend walking away. Then he was swallowed by the bright light.

* * *

"SASUKE!" Naruto cried awakening from his nightmare. "Just a…bad dream." He breathed heavily looking around.

He had forgotten where he was, but it didn't take him very long to remember. The hospital room was shrouded in darkness save for the light coming from the lamp of his nightstand. Funny, he didn't remember a lamp being there before. Under the lamp was a note. Naruto took the note and read over it.

_Dear Naruto,_

_Why are you asleep? That is not very youthful of you! I give you this lamp as a way to help you remember the power of youth!! Gai-sensei told me the lamp represents the burning fire of youth hidden deep inside you. Don't ever forget your youthfulness!_

_Rock Lee_

Naruto sweat dropped. He couldn't begin to think of a word to describe the gift. Thoughtful? But why a lamp? No, he wasn't going to question it. It was probably some quirky thing between Lee and Gai that he could never understand.

The door opened. Naruto put the letter back on the nightstand and looked towards the door. It was Shizune wheeling in a stretcher holding a girl probably only a little older than he was. Shizune looked over at Naruto and smiled before wheeling the stretcher over to the other bed. With strength Naruto didn't know she had, Shizune lifted the girl out of the stretcher and placed her gently on the bed opposite Naruto.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up, but Tsunade-sama insisted she be put in here with you." Shizune whispered walking over to Naruto's bedside.

"I was already awake, but what time is it? Naruto asked loudly.

"Shh. It's nearly five in the morning." Shizune replied. "Tsunade and I had to pull an all-nighter fixing her up. She had three broken ribs, both her legs and ankles broke, both her arms and wrists broke, and a crushed pelvis. It wasn't pretty fixing her up. Plus there was that neck wound. That's what took the longest time. Tsunade couldn't fix that herself so she sent me to get Jiraiya and they were able to heal it."

"Wow! I didn't know Ero-sannin could do medical ninjutsu." Naruto whispered quietly.

"He can't really, but he is the expert when it comes to dealing with--"

"That's Enough Shizune."

Naruto looked over to the door and saw Tsunade leaning in the doorway. Tsunade had the look to kill. Shizune went pale before saying a hasty goodbye and scurrying out the door.

"Go back to bed Naruto, and don't disturb your roommate. You'll be sorry if you do." Tsunade said cryptically before stepping out of the room muttering about migraine medicines.

When Naruto heard the door close, he looked over at the girl. There were a lot of questions surrounding this girl. To his dismay, it was too dark to see if it was someone he knew. Although irritated that he would have to wait until tomorrow to meet his roommate, Naruto turned off the light and fell into a slow and restless slumber.

* * *

Morning came quickly to the bustling streets of Konoha. The sun's rays were now high enough to bounce through the window of the hospital room and land directly in Tayuya's eyes. Tayuya closed her eyes tighter hoping to embrace the darkness of her eyelids, but was denied her slumber and forced to wake up.

When Tayuya opened her eyes she wondered where the hell she was, but the memory of being drugged to sleep by the hag came back in a flash. She felt sore all over, but a million times better than before. Had that hag actually healed her completely? Figuring it wouldn't hurt to test herself, she sat up in her bed slowly. She was surprised to feel no pain. She then flexed her wrists. No pain. She continued testing her body with different movements until she was satisfied. No pain, whatsoever. Only the soreness you would feel after a very taxing day of training. Tayuya didn't like admitting it, but the hag knew how to heal. Tayuya couldn't help but smile.

Her smile, however, was immediately wiped off when she saw the young man on the other side of the room. Had he been there the entire time? The young man looked over in her direction before looking down at the bed beside him.

"Gaara of the Desert? Why the fuck are you here?" Tayuya asked the man.

Gaara looked back at her before replying. "Temari told me she killed a sound ninja fitting your profile. A girl with red hair and a bad mouth. Guess she was wrong."

If Gaara was any normal person, Tayuya would probably have cussed him out and told him to answer the fucking question. However, Gaara was anything but normal. According to Lord Orochimaru, he was in a completely different league as a ninja. That's why Tayuya decided to just re-ask her question.

"Why the fuck are you here?"

"I was sent as back-up for the Konoha ninjas in retrieving Sasuke. Now I am visiting a friend who was hurt during the mission. That's all you need to know," Gaara replied looking back at the bed beside him.

Tayuya set her gaze on the bed beside Gaara. On the bed lay a young man covered in bandages with spiky blond hair. Tayuya narrowed her eyes at the man in the bed. It was that little bastard who tricked her and chased after Kimimaro! Now she was curious. Nobody had survived an encounter with Kimimaro and lived to tell the tale.

"Are you shitting me? That little bastard survived a fight with Kimimaro and completed his mission?" Tayuya asked. If that was the case…would Lord Orochimaru want her back? Would he…kill her if she went back?

Gaara looked at her calculatingly. "The bone freak died. It was sheer luck. Uzumaki got these wounds from Sasuke. Sasuke went to Orochimaru alone. That's all I've been told."

Tayuya looked down. If Sasuke went alone…that meant…Jirobo…Sakon…they were dead too… She was the sole survivor of the original Sound Five...If she went back…what would happen?

"Well, I'd better get going. Tell Uzumaki I stopped by when he wakes up." Gaara said walking towards the door. 'I can understand why she was spared. It's a high stakes gamble. For the Hokage's sake, I hope this bet pays off.' He thought as he closed the door leaving the young girl to her thoughts.

**Author's Note: And that's chapter 2. I know I know. It was hard to get through it, but you did it so congrats again. I'm hoping everybody stayed in character. If they didn't just tell me. I'll work on that and the grammar errors. If anyone's wondering that Rock Lee letter was the most random thing. It was midnight when it popped in my head and I couldn't help but laugh. Too much caffeine and not enough sleep will do that to you. Anyway, I don't know when I'll get around to Chapter 3. Christmas Break is over for me and I'll be working on this and homework at the same time. I'll try and keep posting on a regular basis though. So don't worry. Please Review!! Reviews help motivate me to get the chapters done faster. So it is important that you review. lolz. See you when Chapter 3 is done. Later.**


	3. Turmoil

**Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Naruto or any of its characters. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto. That would be nice if I did though.**

**Author's Note: I apologize everybody for the delay...my excuse...surgery SUCKS. But anyway, I'm better so I hope you will forgive my absence. Winter break is over, so I'm back at college...learning of all things. Why you may ask? Well, it's one of life's greatest mysteries...Anyway while I was unable to write I got a chance to read a few fanfics...they were good. And I got to watch the Naruto Abridged Series...No questions asked I was laughing my ass off. Anyway I'm amazed with the attention I've gotten. Let's see here...****41 Story Alerts. 15 Favorite Stories. 18 Reviews. 5 Author Alerts. 4 C2 Alerts. 1 Favorite Author.**

**I'm happy. I, the Noob of Fanfiction, have fans. Thanks guys. Oh yeah, nobody asked questions in there reviews this time around. Cool, makes my job easier, but don't be afraid to ask. Although I think when I read Demonkid's comment I fell out of my chair laughing. Anyway, I won't trouble you with my banter anymore. I still think everybody skips over the Author's notes anywayz. So I'll leave you to reading. On with the fic!**

The weather predictions indicated there would be bright skies all day in the peaceful town of Konoha. However, the skies were getting darker. Precipitation was building in the clouds with each passing second. A storm would soon be approaching…in more ways than one.

It was a little past lunchtime when Naruto opened his eyes. He yawned before wiping away the matter that had built up over night. There was something very significant about today, but he couldn't find an answer as to why.

His thoughts were immediately erased and replaced by a sudden urge. Naruto jumped up and rushed to the nearby restroom. As soon as his foot stepped in the doorway, a sword was placed at his neck. Naruto paled considerably. If he had taken one more step, his head would have rolled off his shoulders and onto the hospital floor.

A leaf anbu….guarding a bathroom? Granny Tsunade needed to find better places for the anbu to guard, because this was ridiculous. Naruto made a mental note that when he became Hokage to make sure the anbu found better places to guard…like Ichiraku's Ramen Shop.

The anbu lowered his sword before putting a hand behind his head and apologizing sheepishly. Naruto was finally able to gain control of his voice now that the sword was away from his neck. "HEY! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN MY BATHROOM?!"

"Somebody has to guard the air ducts in here." The anbu stated in such a way that it made Naruto feel like an idiot.

"…Well…get out…BECAUSE I'VE GOT TO PEE!!" Naruto yelled before proceeding to shove the anbu out of the bathroom and lock the door.

The anbu waited outside the bathroom for nearly ten minutes. Just how long did it take a kid to use the toilet? As if to answer his question, the door finally unlocked. Naruto stepped out of the bathroom with a look of unquestionable relief.

"Next time…Don't scare me like that…You scared the crap out of me." He said to the anbu. The anbu sweat dropped and watched as Naruto made his way back over to his bed before reluctantly resuming his duty.

Naruto plopped down on his bed and breathed a sigh of relief. He heard laughter coming from the other side of the room before a voice made its way to his ears.

"That was so fucking hilarious! I've never seen an anbu so traumatized in my whole fucking life!" The voice said between laughs.

Naruto looked over to the bed on the other side of the room. On the bed lay a red haired woman that looked slightly familiar, but he couldn't remember from where. He smiled realizing that this must have been his new roommate.

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?"

The lady just looked at him like he was retarded, which made Naruto wonder if he had said something wrong.

"Tayuya of the Sound Five. What the fuck do they teach their shinobi here? They can't even remember an enemy when they see one?" she replied.

Naruto glared. He had finally recognized her. It was one of the sound ninja who helped Sasuke get away.

"Why are you here?" Naruto asked trying to keep the anger building inside at bay.

"Tch. I don't know. I guess the Hokage hag wants information on Lord Orochimaru and Sasuke." Tayuya replied.

Naruto jumped off his bed and rushed at Tayuya, grabbing her by her hospital gown. He hoisted her up by her neck collar and glared into her dark brown eyes.

"TELL ME WHERE SASUKE IS!" Naruto yelled desperately.

Tayuya spat in his face. Naruto let go of her, wiping the saliva from his cheek. A bolt of lightning struck down in the distance followed by a loud rumbling of thunder. Naruto's glare hardened at Tayuya, who simply smirked up at him.

"Little Shit, you're just pissed because you never had a chance to save your friend. Now he belongs to Lord Orochimaru." Tayuya said smugly. "I guess it's ripping you to pieces."

"Shut up." Naruto replied lowering his voice to where it could barely be heard.

"Tch. You're Pathetic." Tayuya remarked with a serious look on her face. "It's so easy to get under your skin. You're just another weakling playing ninja without a purpose. And you want to know something Little Shit? A ninja without a purpose…is a fucking dead o--

"SHUT UP!! YOU DON'T KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT ME!!" Naruto yelled grabbing a vase off Tayuya's table and throwing it across the room.

The vase smashed on impact against Lee's gift. Naruto watched guiltily as the lamp fell off his table and shattered onto the floor. The sound of lightning and thunder crashed around the room once again. Rain began to fall outside. Naruto quietly turned and walked back over to his bed.

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the day.

* * *

"You wished to see me Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade glanced up at the young Jounin from behind her paperwork. "Ah. Anko. Yes, please have a seat."

Anko reluctantly took the seat next to Tsunade's desk and watched as the Hokage aimlessly approved and disapproved of various bills. Anko watched quietly as the pile of paperwork shortened to where Anko could see Tsunade's face.

Tsunade signed and approved one final bill before pushing the paperwork aside and focusing her attention on Anko.

"Anko, are you aware that we have captured a prisoner from the Sound Village?"

Anko raised an eyebrow at Tsunade, curious as to where this conversation was going. "I heard rumor that one of them was captured, but nothing confirmed truth."

Tsunade took on a very serious look, putting her elbows onto her desk and laying her hands on the table. "Let me just cut straight to the chase. I want you to interrogate this ninja instead of Ibiki."

Anko looked at Tsunade as if she had gone senile. "No offense Hokage-sama, but Ibiki has a lot more experience in getting prisoners to talk. I probably wouldn't get near as much out of her as he would.

"Obtaining information on the sound is not your only objective during the interrogation." Tsunade paused. "…I also want you to try and convince her…to join the leaf village."

Anko was shocked at what she was hearing. She stood up and vehemently replied, "Hokage-Sama! We are talking about a servant of Orochimaru. He breeds them into loyal soldiers who sacrifice their lives for his! There is not even a one percent chance that you could convince her to disobey her master!"

Tsunade just looked at Anko. "And yet, I see one of Orochimaru's servants standing right here in front of me with a leaf hitai-ate on her forehead."

"That's different! I willingly left Orochimaru because he left me for dead!"

"I'm perfectly aware of your story Anko. That's why I think you can convince her." Tsunade said grabbing a folder of documents from inside her desk drawer. "These are the mission reports made after both your capture and Tayuya's capture. Also, a copy of a report Jiraiya got yesterday from one of his spies in the sound village."

Anko took the documents and began looking over each of them. With each paragraph Anko took in, her eyes got bigger and bigger as realization began to dawn on her. After reading all the information she just looked at the Hokage.

Tsunade smirked at the look on Anko's face. "Still don't believe you're the best for the job? You are dismissed."

No longer worried about her mission, Anko hastily (with documents in hand) rushed out the door to ready the interrogation room for the 'prisoner'.

* * *

Tayuya woke up the next morning feeling rather uncomfortable. Since her fight with Uzumaki, the anbu had been keeping a closer watch on both of them. All five anbu guards checked up on her throughout the night. Add in one hormonal dipshit having his period for a roommate and who wouldn't feel uncomfortable. Tayuya barely got any sleep.

"So you're finally awake. Troublesome. It was so quiet before, but now you'll probably scare the bird away."

Tayuya turned her head towards the window. A person was sitting by the window watching a bird building a nest on the other side of the glass. Tayuya glared at the person. It was the only familiar face she knew from Konoha….unfortunately for the person.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!! I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU IF IT WASN'T FOR THAT SAND WHORE!! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL KILL YOU!!" Tayuya screamed launching herself off the bed at him, but fell onto the cold tile floor at his feet. During this little outburst the bird had flown away.

Shikamaru Nara sighed. "I guess you're feeling better." This caused Tayuya to glare at him. Tayuya continued to glare at him until she noticed that Uzumaki's bed was vacant.

"Where's the Little Shit? Did he fucking croak or something?"

"Actually he was given medical release early this morning. And now I'M the one that has to watch over you…What a drag…" Shikamaru answered.

At that moment, the door opened. Shizune walked in to see her patient lying on the floor in front of Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, what have you done to my patient?!" Shizune panicked running over and helping Tayuya up and over to her bed.

'Great, now I'm taking the heat for something she did to herself.' Shikamaru thought as he endured Shizune's scolding.

Tayuya observed silently as the medic-nin did a routine check-up on her while scolding the son of a bitch, who was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Tayuya smirked. She liked this medic-nin.

"Are you still sore anywhere?" Shizune asked.

Tayuya just shrugged. "I'm fine."

A knock suddenly came from the door, which caused Tayuya's attention to be directed towards it. In stepped a very annoyed looking man with long, spiky black hair. His blue eyes looked at Tayuya with an icy gaze that sent chills down her spine.

"The Hokage wants to commence with Tayuya's interrogation." The man replied seriously. Shizune nodded that she was fit to be escorted. It was strange. As soon as the man said that, his eyes lost their iciness and developed a lazier, laid-back look.

Tayuya blinked. "Have I seen you before…?"

The man sighed. "My name is Hideo Onji, Jounin. I am to escort you to the interrogation room…now." With that being said, Hideo walked over and hoisted Tayuya over his shoulder causing Tayuya to go into a cussing fit. She cussed all the way down the hallway and out the building, hammering her fists into his back the whole time.

"YOU PUT ME DOWN YOU FUCKING BASTARD!! I DIDN'T SAY YOU COULD FUCKING TOUCH ME!!"

Hideo sighed. He hated this girl. "Shut up. Honestly, you're worse than my ex-girlfriend."

Tayuya calmed down eventually and watched amusedly as the townspeople's faces shifted from pleasant to what the fuck as they passed by. After that got boring, Tayuya decided to just annoy Hideo, who still refused to put her down.

"So you got demoted? Shouldn't have fucked up and been so lazy."

"Why are you complaining?" Hideo sighed. "Actually, I asked to be demoted. Being an anbu is too much work. But I wish I had my rank back now." He said walking into an old prison.

"Tch. Why's that?" Tayuya asked.

"My new mission is to be your babysitter, which really sucks because now I have to listen to you. I'd rather listen to an old lady talk about her sex life." Hideo sighed.

"I'm sure you would…you sick fuck." Tayuya said slightly disturbed.

Hideo just sighed, stopping in front of a wooden door. "We're here." He said hoisting Tayuya off of his shoulder. Hideo pointed at the door, which Tayuya took as the signal to go inside.

Tayuya opened the door. As soon as she crossed the threshold, the door locked behind her. Hideo…that Bastard! Inside the room stood a long wooden table with two chairs, each on opposite sides of the table. In the chair nearest the exit was a woman with purple hair and a brown trench coat. She was leaning back in her chair, propping her foot on the table in a manly sort of way.

Tayuya's eye twitched. The lady obviously didn't know how to keep her legs closed. 'Note to self,' she thought, 'women in Konoha are sluts. They have no fucking respect.'

"The name's Anko." the lady said not looking up from the paper she was reading. "Take your seat."

Tayuya snarled, but begrudgingly took her seat. Tayuya sat there for nearly five minutes, but this Anko whore was refusing to even look at her. Tayuya wasn't dumb. It was an interrogation tactic.

An hour passed by. Neither of the two women had muttered a word. Anko flipped open another file and began reading the contents in that file. Tayuya glared impatiently. After all, she didn't have anything to do, whereas Anko had enough papers to keep her busy until dawn the next day. It took another hour, but Tayuya finally cracked.

"WILL YOU DO YOUR FUCKING JOB?! I'M TIRED OF THIS SILENT SHIT!" Tayuya yelled.

Anko looked up from her reading, quirking her eyebrow as if to ask if Tayuya was ok. Tayuya was not ok.

"JUST START THE FUCKING INTERROGATION!!" Tayuya yelled again.

Anko blinked. "Whoa, talk about déjà vu. I said the same thing when I was in that chair. I think I was around the same age as you too."

Tayuya glared at Anko, but couldn't stop the question from escaping her lips. "You were interrogated by the leaf village?"

"Yeah. Although this is my home village, my sensei and I left the village when he was refused the title of Hokage."

Tayuya smirked at seeing a chance to get under her interrogator's skin. "Your sensei must have been a poor excuse for a ninja if he wanted to rule over this shitty village."

Anko just looked at Tayuya for a second before replying, "My sensei was Orochimaru…"

Tayuya paled considerably. Lord Orochimaru was this bitch's sensei? Why didn't he ever say he had other students?

"You seem surprised," Anko said, "then again, Orochimaru always did like to keep secrets from people." Anko looked at Tayuya with a wicked grin. "Did you know…he was planning to kill you once you completed your mission?"

Tayuya looked like a ghost. The expression on her face would have been considered priceless if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. Tayuya's lips moved in a quiet manner, but eventually she got control of her emotions enough to glare at Anko.

YOU'RE A FUCKING LIAR!! LORD OROCHIMARU WOULD NEVER KILL HIS FOLLOWERS!!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought, before I was tortured and left for dead. Anyway, I digress. If you don't believe me then read these files. It's a collection of information we've gathered on Orochimaru since he left the village." Anko said getting up. "I'll let you read over it all. In the mean time I'm going to go get some dangos. You want one?"

Tayuya didn't reply. She simply sat in her chair looking down. Her facial expression could not be seen through her red hair. Anko smiled sympathetically.

"I'll get you one anyway. Oh, and don't think about escaping, I don't want to listen to Hideo complain about having to drag you back." Anko said trying to lighten the mood, but to no avail. Anko sighed before walking out the door to the nearest dango shop.

**Author's Note: Alright, I admit it...I'm actually a little disappointed with this chapter. I mean, while I was writing this I was screaming, banging my head against the wall, and stuff. I'm too excited about what I have in store for the story that I get pissed off when I'm writing the BORING stuff. Still, the boring stuff is what sets up the scenes for what is to come. So if you can endure it...I'll try and endure it. The story may seem a little fast paced if you haven't noticed. That was planned. I'm not rushing it. Anyway, I decided to try something different. Naruto and Tayuya have gotten off to a rocky start, haven't they? And YES...I did break Lee's lamp...What can I say? I'm a meany. Anyway, please TELL ME if the characters seem OOC or if I have mechanical errors. Oh yeah and REVIEW...authors are expected to harp about needing reviews. And I want to be a part of the crowd. lolz. See you when Chapter 4 is done.**


	4. Forced Circumstances

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. It would be nice if I did though.**

**Author's Note: Well...TADA...yeah it has been a while hasn't it? I've got to say I've been busy lately with homework. Plus I had to completely rewrite this chapter. I was so frustrated that I would have to rewrite that I took a break and wrote _Lifting Burdens_. It's a short story and I've been told 2/3 characters were OOC for it, but that doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that...Chapter 4 is out. I've been working on it for the past...12 hours! Wow...Anyway a few things I would like to say.**

**I learned how to spell whore...lol. When I got the reviews I had NO CLUE what you all were trying to tell me. When I finally figured out I hit my head on the desk...it hurt a little but I'm not in a coma. So...yay!**

**I supply updates on my author page. Basically tells what I'm up to outside of the writer's circle. What I'm working on and what not. So if you want to know what's going down...I update, if I can, about once a week.**

**I've finally realized that some people really do read the Author's Notes...Hi!**

**Alright let's go to Q/A.**

**rldragon: Would I consider writing the names of the characters in Japanese? I'm afraid it's too late for that now. If I start now it creates a block for some readers for me to suddenly switch to the Japanese style. However I will have Japanese Jutsus and catch phrases for the most part...**

**Antichr1st: Just so you know...Anko wasn't going to be a "whore" in my story. I will admit though I was beginning to fall into that trap, but I've found a way out of it. It's Tayuya. Simple as that. lol. As time progresses Tayuya will not think of Anko as a whore. Promise of a lifetime.**

**imsooobored: Thanks for the dango comment. Honestly had no idea, whatsoever.**

**OK. That's all I've got to say...I think this is my longest author's note so far, but who cares! They were all things I needed to point out and talk about. So now the moment has come for you to stop reading the author's note. ON WITH THE FIC!**

Documents lay scattered across the floor of the prison complex. Each held important data on the Village hidden in the Sound. Tayuya couldn't believe it. These documents dated all the way back to before the founding of the village! Who could possibly know so much about the village before its existence?

Tayuya continued scanning the documents as the door swung open. Anko came in with dango in hand.

"So…What part are you on?" she asked.

Tayuya stared at the woman before scoffing and turning back towards the papers.

"Like you care."

Anko blinked but didn't lose resolve. Instead she held the dango out to Tayuya hoping to find some common ground. But, once again, she got the cold shoulder as Tayuya smacked the dango out of her hand and it landed on the cold, dirty floor.

"Alright, I can take a hint. I'll leave you alone," Anko said before walking out the door.

"Go fuck yourself," Tayuya said just as the door closed. These papers were putting her in a bad mood. Who in the sound village was acting as a traitor? From all the sources of information they would nearly have to be a high ranking ninja. Tayuya considered the possibilities, but nobody stood out.

In a fit of rage, Tayuya brushed the rest of the documents onto the prison floor. This caused the bastard to look into the room, but he soon resumed his guard duties. Tayuya mocked the guard before putting her head down on the table. She was bored.

Deciding there was nothing better to do, she began picking up the different documents she had scattered around the room. She scoffed at the fact that she was degrading herself to common housemaid cleaning, but decided it was better than nothing.

After a few minutes most of the documents had made their way back onto the table. Tayuya went to pick up another document when she saw a mission report lying nearby. It was entitled "The Sound Invasion." Tayuya instantly tossed the document in hand aside and began looking through this new found discovery. Finally, something about how they had screwed the leaf village.

Tayuya hated to admit it, but that spy was really good. The document held pictures and bios of every ninja involved in the invasion. Tayuya nearly gagged when she found her picture. They had gotten her bad side. Tayuya decided she'd rather not look at anymore bios and began looking at the debriefing reports. What she found was shock.

There were excruciating details on the fight between Lord Orochimaru and the Old Timer. Lord Orochimaru used two sound genin as experiments for his new jutsu. Kin and Zaku. Tayuya knew them growing up. They were the same age as her…

'No…there had to be some mistake…Lord Orochimaru would never do that,' she thought. 'But wait...didn't that traitorous whore say something about Orochimaru leaving her for dead?'

Tayuya sunk to the ground. 'No way,' she thought. 'Was the who—Anko right? Was Lord Orochimaru really going to…kill her? As if to answer the question, a letter was pushed into her hands, and a voice made itself known.

"Here," Tsunade said. "Read that…it will answer your question."

Tsunade led Tayuya back over to the table quietly while Tayuya read the letter. With each word read, a part of Tayuya died inside. Everything she had thought about her beloved village and her beloved leader were burning before her eyes.

_B Rank Mission_

_Dispose of the Sound Four. They have betrayed me by taking too long to recover my new body. It was a unanimous decision by the council. Burn this letter after you have read it._

_Lord Orochimaru, First Otokage of the Hidden Sound Village_

"Well, you seem surprised," Tsunade stated bluntly.

Tayuya was too shocked to glare at the hag. There was no mistaking Lord Orochimaru's insignia. She was really to be killed on sight.

Silence greeted the room for the next hour as Tayuya collected her shattered thoughts. Finally, after some long endured patience on Tsunade's part, the silence lifted.

"Hey old hag…give me a kunai."

"Why?" Tsunade questioned.

Tayuya smirked. "Don't worry; I'm not a wrist-slitting emo like that bastard Sasuke. Just give me a kunai!"

Tsunade gave it some thought before removing a kunai from her robe and flinging it towards Tayuya. Tayuya ducked as the kunai embedded into the back of her chair.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?!" Tayuya yelled

Tsunade shrugged her shoulders. "Just testing you. If suicide was on your mind you wouldn't have tried to dodge it.

Tayuya smirked before grabbing the kunai out of the chair. "And what if I hadn't dodged."

"I guess the custodians would have a hard time scrubbing the blood off the table" Tsunade said, also smirking.

Tayuya nodded. 'For an old hag, the hokage is kind of cool.' She admitted to herself begrudgingly.

Tsunade watched curiously as Tayuya went through a few handsigns before yelling out "Kuchiyose no jutsu." Tsunade watched with interest as the smoke cleared and a small boa constrictor appeared on the table.

"Cough it up," Tayuya replied as she started strangling the snake.

The boa constrictor glared at Tayuya, but did not bite its summoner. Instead it began gagging before it coughed up a band of cloth. This seemed to satisfy Tayuya as the snake disappeared in a puff of smoke. Tayuya unwrapped the cloth. Inside was a simple sound hitai-ate. With one foul swoop, the kunai slashed across the hitai-ate.

"Fuck that village! I'll be a rogue!"

To say the least, Tsunade was baffled. "You do realize that constitutes a warrant to the neighboring villages that you are a threat to be killed on sight."

Tayuya smirked, "I'm a spur of the moment kind of girl."

Tsunade sweatdropped. "Luckily for you, I have a proposition."

Tayuya turned serious. "Don't think for a second that just because I forsake my fucking village that I'm just going to waltz my ass over to your fucking team."

"Think carefully about what I'm about to tell you, because I will not make this offer again," Tsunade said turning serious. "I'll admit that I do wish for you to join our side. We have a threat to come from the Sound Village and the Akatsuki Organization. Both threats have the power to wipe Konoha off the map. It's no secret that we will need all the help we can get…"

"So, where do I fit in this?" Tayuya asked.

"As much as I hate to…I'm willing to pay you for your services to this village," Tsunade said. "But…the moment you leave the village outside of a mission…you will be tracked down and killed. If you try to escape during a mission, your teammate's first priority will switch to killing you."

"So basically I'm a paid prisoner of a shithole village," Tayuya replied irritated. "Screw you, you old hag! Why in the hell would I take that offer?"

"Because if you do not, then I'll simply have to kill you right now," Tsunade replied standing up. "And don't think that I will hesitate."

"YOU BITCH!! YOU'RE NOT GIVING ME A CHOICE IN THE MATTER!!" Tayuya yelled at the top of her lungs.

"So, are you willing to take my offer?" Tsunade replied smirking.

"FUCK! DAMN IT!" Tayuya yelled. She had gotten up and begun to pace furiously. Looking at the documents she had so neatly set on the table, Tayuya pushed all of them onto the floor. Then she proceeded to kick the chair across the room. Seeing nothing else that she could vent on, Tayuya finally replied in a quiet "…yes."

Tsunade smiled. "Excellent," This was quickly responded by Tayuya's middle finger. "Oh don't act like that. Lighten up. You'll get used to it after a while"

"Tch. Yeah right…" Tayuya grumbled.

* * *

Naruto woke up early. Nothing could put a damper on his mood today, because tomorrow would be the day he set out on his training mission with Ero-sannin! To say the least…Naruto had been bouncing around the walls of his apartment ever since he got out of the hospital.

Not to mention today was looking to be an exciting day, as Granny Tsunade was giving him a special mission that paid a bonus upon completion! No sir, nothing was going to bother him today….that is…until…

"WHAT!!" Naruto screamed.

Tsunade put a finger in her deaf ear to see if it still worked. "I thought I made myself perfectly clear."

"NO! THERE IS NO WAY YOU'LL _EVER_ MAKE ME DO THAT!" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto you've done D rank missions before—"

"I will NEVER catch that stupid cat Tora AGAIN! I had scratch marks on my face that didn't heal for weeks!"

Tsunade sighed. "Fine. I do have another mission you could do, but I don't think you would like it any bet—"

"Anything is better than catching that stupid cat, dattebayo," Naruto replied cutting her off.

Tsunade shrugged her shoulders. "Alright then, you asked for it." Tsunade pushed another file in front of him. "D-Rank Mission. Give a tour of Konoha to our newest villager.

Naruto blinked. "That's not too bad granny…"

"Well she just moved in last night. Hideo says that she didn't get through shopping until the evening hours and even then she still had to unpack and store everything. By the time she finally went to sleep it was past midnight. So…she may not be in a hospitable mood."

"Come on," Naruto said. "I've survived through Sakura's torture. How bad could this girl be?"

Tsunade could only shake her head.

* * *

Naruto had no trouble finding the apartment…well…after he asked for directions. Naruto had to admit he was embarrassed when he discovered that the apartment was located about five blocks away from his own, but at least he found it.

Naruto knocked on the door of apartment #10. When the door opened, Naruto closed his eyes and plastered a smile on his face. "Good evening madam, I am Naruto Uzumaki and I will be your tour guide for today."

"Kid…open your eyes…"

Naruto opened his eyes carefully to see a very scary man with long, spiky black hair and icy blue eyes glaring at him in such a way that Naruto felt like he died three times. Naruto paled considerably.

"S—Sorry I-I—"

"The new girl lives next door, apartment #11," The man sighed before shutting the door in Naruto's face.

Naruto walked away squeamishly towards the apartment next door. Finally regaining his courage he rung the door buzzer and the door opened.

"YOU?! WHY I—" Naruto cut off as he took in the sight he was seeing. The sound ninja, Tayuya, was standing in a black nightgown with a toothbrush inside her mouth. If Ero-sannin saw this sight…he would have shot through the roof and out of sight. But being the respectable man Naruto is…he simply turned around really fast.

"Oh Fuck," Tayuya mumbled through the toothpaste.

Naruto was blushing like a mad man and the only sound that could be heard was a spitting sound she made. Naruto didn't think that was important…until the toothpaste started to run down his face.

"What did you…YOU SPAT TOOTHPASTE IN MY HAIR?!" Naruto said before freaking out. He frantically tried to grab the toothpaste out of his hair, but it worked to no avail. Tayuya's laughter and comments weren't helping the matter either.

"Oh my god," Tayuya laughed. "You should see yourself! You look like a fucking preschooler who had too much fun with the glue!"

"Shut…up…," Naruto said as he continued to scrub his hair against the support beam of the apartment. "Could this day get any worse?"

"So are you going to tell me why you fucking knocked?" Tayuya asked. The laughter had subsided into annoyance.

Naruto stopped scrubbing his head to look towards Tayuya. "Can I use your sink?"

"Answer the fucking question and I may consider it"

"Well," Naruto said. "I'm your tour guide for the day."

"Shit…wait one second," Tayuya sighed as she disappeared back into her apartment. Naruto no longer had a clue what was going on. A few minutes later Tayuya appeared in a new set of her old clothes. Naruto, however, was more interested in the headband strapped to her left shoulder. A sound headband with a slash carved through it. Instantly, Naruto put his hand in his pocket and grabbed hold of Sasuke's headband.

Before Naruto realized it, a bucket of cold water had been thrown over his head. Naruto shook his head. "What was that for?!"

Tayuya just shrugged her shoulders with bucket in hand. "You said you wanted to use the sink, I translated that to I want the fucking toothpaste out of my hair."

Naruto sneezed. "First, I get the death glare from the guy next door for calling him madam, then—"

"Wait a fucking second! You called Hideo…a madam?" Tayuya asked starting to chuckle.

"Yes, but—" That was all Tayuya needed to hear to begin busting out with laughter again. "Will you stop laughing?!"

Tayuya stopped just all of a sudden. She had a surprised look on her face, but Naruto simply shrugged it off. Tayuya suddenly shook her head.

"Whatever, What's on the fucking agenda Mr. Little Shit?" Tayuya asked

This, of course, caused a rise out of Naruto. "Quit calling me that! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be Hokage one day, dattebayo!"

"Big Fucking Deal," Tayuya replied uncaringly. "Anyone could be your Hokage. Look at your leader now. She's a fucking drunk-assed hag."

Naruto had to hold a chuckle back on that one. "Yeah well, you'll see. When I'm Hokage, I'll be known as the greatest Hokage there ever was."

"Tch," Tayuya scoffed. "I'll believe it when I see it." Tayuya said as she started to walk away towards the town. "Well, are you going to start the fucking tour or am I going to have to listen to more of your god damn whining?"

Naruto sighed. He suddenly wished he was being scratched to death by Tora. With complete and utter regret for the choice he didn't make, Naruto started the tour.

**Author's Note: Alright that was Chapter 4. Guess what? Next chapter we will be through Phase 1 of this fic! Pretty crazy huh? Once again I thank you all for reading, because if you don't read...why do I write? That's also a good reason to REVIEW. It always goes back to reviews. I'm the Noob of Fanfiction...I need reviews in order to feel good about myself. lol. Also, once again, if you have any questions about the fic. JUST ASK. I'll probably PM you an answer to your questions. **

**Also, If there are any Final Fantasy 7 fans out their try reading _Lifting Burdens_. It needs to be re-edited to put the characters back in character, but still read, review, tell me what you think of it. If you decide to flame it please remember to put the flame out before leaving otherwise it may effect my willingness to write more chapters. In other words, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. lol**

**Anyway that's all I've got to say this go around. See you when the 5th chapter is rolled out. Later.**


	5. The Tour

**Author's Note: Good grief, I can't even remember the last time I updated, but so many things came up (like always --). Homework, Family Issues, Funerals, and much much more. Yeah I've had a rough time since my last update, but things are starting to look up for the better (finally...--) Thank You for all the wonderful reviews so far. I'm proud that I've been satisfactory in my story telling. (Even though I am the noob...)**

**stilldemented: hehe...you're smart. I wouldn't say the curse mark is the source of Sasuke's problems as much as Orochimaru. Other than that you got everything else pretty spot on. The neck wound was referring to Tayuya's curse mark. Something I'm surprised you picked up on was the Itsuki Onji thing. I thought I hid that well, but you're right. He's Hideo's little brother, but I'm still unsure whether he's going to end up with a big role in this fic. Good eyes though.**

**Anyway, I don't want to keep anyone else waiting. You've all waited too long so...On with the Fic!**

'Well maybe this won't be so bad after all,' Naruto thought as he set off for the next location. They had already toured the Hokage's Tower and Konoha Hospital with little to no arguments from Tayuya. Though letting her in to visit Kiba turned out to be a bad move because he started yelling at her and she retaliated by re-breaking one of his ribs. To say the least, they were kicked out…but other than that everything was going smoothly.

"So next we will be heading to Konoha Park!"

"Tch, why the fuck is everything named after the city?" Tayuya replied. "Konoha Hospital, Konoha Park, Konoha restaurant…this shithole of a town couldn't possibly be any more retarded."

"Hey, Konohamaru!" Naruto shouted at a little boy that rounded the corner.

Tayuya slapped her forehead, "I stand corrected."

"Darn, he didn't hear me," Naruto said disappointedly before looking at Tayuya questioningly. "Did you say something?"

Tayuya rolled her eyes, "Nothing at all."

* * *

"So this is Konoha Park. I don't think it's very interesting, but it's famous for—"

"The Memorial Stone, which has the names engraved of every leaf shinobi that had the honor of dying in battle."

Naruto blinked. "Uh…yeah…I hear they recently updated it to include the Third Hokage."

There was a brief pause, as the subject caused a bad vibe between them. They continued their trek in silence until they reached the stone.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?!"

Kakashi looked towards Naruto and Tayuya with what Naruto took to be pleasant surprise. "Oh hello, Naruto. Just paying my respects, as usual. I'd stay to chat, but I'm afraid something has just come up."

And with that, Kakashi zoomed off towards the forest.

"You Pervert!" Naruto yelled. "You just want to read that pervy book you carry around!"

Little did he know that was the last thing on Kakashi's mind.

* * *

"We need to talk."

"Good job," Hideo replied clapping, "It seems the years have only heightened your abilities to sense enemies. At least there's one good thing about getting old. Eh, Kakashi-sempai?"

Hideo was being his normal sarcastic self, which was really irritating at the moment. Kakashi forced himself to calm down. The last thing he wanted was one of his old Anbu colleagues making fun of him for losing his cool.

"What are you doing here, Hideo?" Kakashi asked.

"My job," Hideo replied removing his sarcastic demeanor, "The girl's an ex-sound ninja. I've been asked to follow her around. Make sure she doesn't try anything."

Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, he mistook Hideo to be seeking vengeance against Naruto. Hideo had lost both of his parents in the war against the kyuubi, leaving him to raise his little brother all by himself. Hideo never seemed to be the vengeance type, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Here's a thought sempai," Hideo said catching Kakashi's attention. "Instead of questioning my job, how about you start doing yours."

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.

"Just how much training have you given that boy?" Hideo said looking toward the pair. "He sticks out like a sore thumb. Not to mention he hasn't the faintest idea he's being followed. Tayuya picked up on it from the second I started following them."

"You're right," Kakashi muttered. "I haven't been the greatest teacher to Naruto or Sakura. That was a mistake on my part, and I intend to fix that mistake once they complete their training with Jiraiya and Tsunade."

"Glad to hear it," Hideo replied. "Now if you will excuse me, I need to catch up to those two."

Kakashi looked down to the memorial stone to find that Naruto and Tayuya had indeed left. Kakashi turned back to Hideo only to find that he had disappeared as well. Kakashi never even realized he left. Maybe getting old wasn't a good thing after all.

* * *

"Now if you look to your left you will see—"

"The Hokage Mountain," Tayuya cut in, "memorial and shrine dedicated to the four previous leaders of the Hidden Leaf Village. The First Hokage was famous for his wood ninjutsus and his battle against Madara Uchiha, the first traitor of the village. The Second Hokage was famous as the brother of the First and used water element jutsus. The Third Hokage was the oldest hokage to ever live and was most famous for creating the Kage Bunshin no jutsu. And finally, the Fourth Hokage, made famous for his battle against the Kyuubi No Kitsune, strongest of the tailed beasts of legend. The Fourth was nicknamed the Yellow Flash for his great speed in battle. Nobody has yet to become as fast as the Fourth was."

Naruto blinked before letting out a frustrated moan. Every time he tried to give the tour, Tayuya would cut in, and the worst part was…she seemed to know more about the leaf village than he did!

"I don't get why I'm doing this anymore! You already know everything there is to know, so why am I even giving this tour?!"

Tayuya smirked. "Poor Little Shit, getting pissed because things aren't going your way?"

Naruto glared before trudging off towards the next destination.

* * *

"This is the academy," Naruto said appreciatively with a twinge of excitement, "Come on, you've got to meet Iruka-sensei!"

Tayuya groaned as she pushed her legs to follow the spry young blonde. The last thing she wanted to do was meet a bunch of half-assed teachers…

As Tayuya entered the academy building, the first thing she noticed was…her tour guide had disappeared. She slowly ventured down the halls soundlessly peeking into different classrooms.

"Boo!"

Tayuya jumped. The Little Shit had somehow found a way to sneak up behind her! She turned to glare daggers at him.

"Ha!" Naruto laughed childishly, "You should have seen the look on your—"

Naruto was cut off as Tayuya delivered a roundhouse kick to his face, which sent him sprawling head over heels into the nearby janitor's closet.

"Don't you ever sneak up on me again you maggot-infested cunt!" Tayuya yelled.

Naruto sat in the janitor's closet lolling between consciousness and unconsciousness before finally staggering back to his feet. "That hurt," he groaned rubbing his bruising cheek.

"Tch. Did you think I was weak like you Little Shit?" Tayuya glared again. Naruto put his hands up in defense, but it did little good as Tayuya jabbed her knee into his exposed gut, causing him to double back over in pain.

"Serves you right bastard," Tayuya smirked as she tried to leave. She was shocked however when he reached out and grabbed hold of her shoulder.

"Don't you dare look down on me," Naruto replied sadly looking down to the floor, "I get enough of it already…"

Tayuya blinked before scoffing it off. She couldn't believe that bastard! Was he trying to make her feel sorry for him! But there was no way in hell she was going to apologize. As she fought with her conflicting emotions, Naruto pushed past her towards the academy entrance. Tayuya sighed before slowly following him.

"Let him go, he'll bounce back before you know it."

Tayuya stopped and turned around. A man resembling the shadow bastard was staring at her kindly. The only noticeable difference she could make out was the man was slightly tanner with a kunai-inflicted scar sliced across the top of his nose.

"I don't believe we've met, I'm Iruka Umino, Naruto's teacher," He said offering out his hand to shake.

Tayuya regarded him for a second before spitting into her hand and shaking his hand. "Tayuya. Just Tayuya."

Iruka grimaced as the saliva stuck to his palm like a spider web before wiping it off onto his trousers. "Well 'Just Tayuya', since Naruto doesn't seem able, I'll go ahead and give you a quick tour before my next class."

For the next hour, Tayuya endured a boring tour of Konoha Academy. It wasn't that the teacher was boring, but the way he taught was dull and nearly lulled her to sleep. When the tour was finally over, they walked out the entrance to the academy to find Naruto sitting on an old wooden swing.

"You know," Iruka said catching Tayuya's attention, "Naruto and I are a lot alike. That is why I know he hides a lot of his feelings by acting like an annoying troublemaker. So don't be so harsh on him next time. Okay?"

Tayuya didn't even acknowledge him. Instead she walked silently over to the blonde-haired boy and stood in front of him. Naruto looked up at her with eyes glazed over from burdening thoughts.

"Truce?" she asked quietly offering her hand.

Naruto blinked idiotically, "What do you mean?"

"Truce, damn it! I'll stop being disrespectful if you stop fucking around like a retard!" Tayuya yelled bobbing her arm up and down in an insisting manner.

Tayuya watched impatiently as Naruto used what little brain cells he had to think over her offer. Finally, Naruto looked up at her with that stupid grin plastered on his face.

"Truce," he complied taking her hand as she pulled him up out of the swing.

Tayuya nodded, "Ok then, Uzumaki, what's next?

As if to answer her, Naruto's stomach made a strange rumbling sound. "Since we didn't stop for lunch, let's get some dinner. I know the perfect place!" Naruto offered with a twinge of excitement in his voice.

Tayuya shrugged her shoulders in an uncaring comply with the offer, which Naruto took as the ok sign. And before she knew it, Naruto was dragging her away from the academy towards what she hoped would be a good place to eat.

* * *

Naruto came to a screeching stop as he looked lovingly at the greatest restaurant in Konoha.

"You carted me off to a fucking ramen stand?!" Tayuya asked confounded.

Naruto gasped, "This is NOT just a ramen stand! This is Ichiraku's Ramen stand! There is a huge difference!"

"Tch." Tayuya replied softly biting down on her tongue. It had only been fifteen minutes and she was already regretting her truce with Uzumaki.

The two walked into the empty ramen stand, upon entering they were instantly greeted by Ayame who took their orders. After a five minute wait, each was digging into their ramen.

"Well…what do you think?" Naruto asked smiling.

"Better than the shit they called food at the Sound Village," she replied.

Naruto beamed; every time he asked Sakura to try the ramen here she rejected the offer or simply got the diet ramen. It was no wonder Sakura couldn't stand this place when she always ordered the nastiest ramen available! That aside, Naruto was happy that Tayuya liked it.

"Stop looking at me unless you want another kick to the face."

Naruto shook his head before quickly turning away from Tayuya. He never even realized that he was looking at her. The thought of it made his cheeks turn rosy. Pushing further thought on the subject from his mind, Naruto dug back into his ramen delicacy.

With the meal finished, Naruto could think of no better way to end the tour. "Well, I think we can finally bring this tour to a close."

"Thank god," Tayuya replied, "Take me home before I fucking collapse."

"Alright," Naruto said as a wicked smile made its way up his face. Naruto walked up to her and flicked her nose. "Tag, you're it!"

Tayuya blinked…what the hell…he couldn't be serious? Part of the truce was he didn't act like a retard! Yet sure enough, Naruto was running away from her. Tayuya smirked. Well if that's what he wanted…

* * *

Tayuya chased him all the way back to her apartment complex before tackling him into the ground right outside her apartment door.

"Ow!!" Naruto yelled as she let him up from the ground. He was now sporting a scrape mark the size of Konoha on his forehead. "Remind me to never play tag with you again…"

"Your fault," Tayuya replied uncaringly, "I thought you agreed to stop acting like a retard. Consider that your punishment."

Naruto grumbled childishly about unfair punishments, which caused Tayuya to roll her eyes. Naruto didn't even notice when she walked into her apartment. Tayuya came back and slapped a wet rag over his forehead.

"Keep that on there a little while and it should stop stinging," she said.

Naruto was surprised to say the least. He didn't think Tayuya had a considerate bone in her body. "…Thanks."

Tayuya simply nodded before crossing back over to her apartment. "Thanks for the tour Uzumaki…it was…fun." For the first time that day, Naruto thought he saw the faintest glimpse of a smile cross Tayuya's lips, but wasn't sure because she closed her apartment door almost a second later.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, grinning at a job well done. As he turned around, however he froze. Walking in his direction was that scary guy he met this morning…Hideo.

Hideo came to a stop right in front of Naruto, which caused said boy to panic. Something about this guy scared him to the very core. His ice cold eyes looked down at him calculatingly. Yet, just when he thought he would faint from terror, his fear died. Naruto looked up at the icy man to find him smiling lazily at him.

"Naruto…right?"

Naruto nodded weakly.

"Stay sharp, especially around that one," Hideo said pointing towards Tayuya's apartment. "You get on her bad side, and I'm not sure if even the Fourth could save you from her wrath."

With those words, Hideo walked past Naruto towards his own apartment, leaving Naruto with thoughts that would later turn his dreams into nightmares.

* * *

Tayuya awoke to a violent banging on the door. She grumbled before trying to fall back asleep, but that wish was corrupted as another round of door knocking slammed into her eardrums. Tayuya got out of bed to answer the door.

"What the FUCK is your—"

"Get dressed. Your friend is leaving the village today."

Tayuya had no clue who Hideo was talking about until they were standing right in front of the gates leading out of the village. Naruto. A group of people had accumulated to wish him the fondest farewell. Some of them Tayuya recognized from yesterday, others from capturing Sasuke, and still others she didn't know at all.

Tayuya didn't know why, but she was kind of…sad. Naruto was the only person she was familiar with besides Hideo. To lose a friend so quickly after she'd gained him didn't sit well in her thoughts.

"Oy! Tayuya-chan!" Naruto waved happily.

That caught her attention. "Baka! Don't you ever call me that!" she shouted.

He made his way through the crowd to meet her, "Thanks for coming to see me off."

"Tch," Tayuya scoffed looking at the ground, "if Hideo hadn't dragged me here I wouldn't have even known you were leaving."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I guess it slipped my mind."

An older man made his way through the crowd to walk up alongside Naruto. He had a long white, spiky ponytail and a leaf hitai-ate on his forehead that was marked over with the kanji for oil. He shared a brief glance with Hideo before looking down to Naruto.

"Well Naruto, I think it's about time we hit the road."

Naruto nodded before looking at Tayuya, "Well see you in three years, Tayuya-ch—"

"Don't fucking finish that sentence if you don't want to leave with a broken arm."

And…with a hesitant step away from Tayuya, Naruto was finally ready to begin his three years of training. As she walked him leave that day, Tayuya could only look at the blond as he left. She didn't care though; he was only a stupid genin.

She didn't care…

"He's training under the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya. He's going to be one hell of a fighter when he returns," Hideo said looking as the young Uzumaki finally faded from view.

"Tch," Tayuya smirked. "He could train with every shinobi this shithole had to offer for all I care."

"Why's that," Hideo asked.

"Because no matter how strong he gets, I'm going to make sure that he never catches up to me."

**Author's Note: And we have arrived at the end of Phase 1. Congratulations for sticking with me thus far. I know it's been a tough journey with everyone having to work through my mechanical errors along the way. But I appreciate the your enthusiasm. Anyway, if you see anything wrong be sure to tell me about it. I'll try and correct it to the best of my abilities. Also...remember to REVIEW!! Muy importante (Very Important) that I get reviews from all of you. Otherwise I just dry up. That's why I need your motivation to keep going. And what better way to do that than...REVIEW!! I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out, but hopefully sometime before summer vacation, right? Anyway, I digress. This has been a long week and now it is time for some rest and relaxation.**


	6. Bandit Control

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto...Damn it...**

**Author's Note: Yes! It is I! I am back with a new chapter! I know it's been a long time...but at least I came back right? This chapter...is probably the shortest chapter I have ever written. I'm sorry but I found a nice place to stop and decided to do just that. However my detail development skills are coming back. Which is good...I'll need them later on...**

**By the way...I am taking Narutomaniac's advice and tuning this up to an M rating. I wasn't going to at first, but when I started writing...I realized this chapter was...graphic...maybe to minors. So it's an M rated fic now.**

**Thank you for all the reviews so far...and for the patience you have given to me during my days at college and other personal problems. You reviewers are the best! Now before I get all teary eyed...ON WITH THE FIC!**

Three years seem like an eternity until you actually sit down and let the days go by. Cities grow, people change, people die, and yet life goes on. No normal man would think something so profound as that. But he was no ordinary man was he.

Dawning his bright orange mask upon his face once more, he decided it was time to play the joker again. He got up from where he sat atop the mighty statue of Madara Uchiha and made his way from the Valley of the End down to the main road.

He traveled through the forest confidently. To his right he could see the final resting place of the last of the Kaguya Clan. Well…it was kind of hard not to see actually…

As he walked down the road a little farther, a small bandit camp made its way into his sight. That was odd…he would have expected the First's Granddaughter to have dealt with such pathetic excuses for men. But he didn't linger on that thought long…technically he also fell into that category…

He had hoped that he could simply walk by without having to get involved, but the bandits had put up a toll booth…how annoying.

"Oy, look at the little freak show coming down the road this time," a bandit said as he made his way up to the toll booth.

"Who me? No I'm no freak show. I'm Tobi!" He said introducing himself in a silly manner.

"Tobi, huh," A second bandit snorted before laughing at his stupidity, "And what might you be going to Konoha for?"

"Oh no, you got me all wrong," Tobi laughed as he rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not allowed to go there. I'm just meeting my friend Zetsu-san in the forest up ahead. We're going to Suna!"

"Ha," The first bandit laughed, "You hear that? He's not allowed to go there! So you think you're mister badass or something since you're not allowed in a village?"

Tobi just shrugged his shoulders innocently.

The first bandit growled annoyingly before calming down and smirking, "You have two options. You pay with cash or you pay with blood. It's your—"

The second bandit went bug eyed as his fellow bandit brethren found several kunai embedded inside his head and mouth.

"Mister you talk too much. You're going to make me late to see Zetsu-san!" Tobi said before walking up to the second guard.

The second bandit tried to give words to what he just saw, but for the first time in a long time he found himself completely paralyzed with fear of the man standing before him. He looked deep into the hole in his mask at the eye of the kindly goofball.

He soon found himself tortured barbarically for three whole days.

The bandit fell to his knees in front of Tobi holding his ribcage. He tried to scream for help but had lost his voice from the torture he received. He soon felt the monster Tobi patting him on the head very gently.

"Good boy," Tobi said as he walked on down the road.

The second bandit sat on his hands and knees looking up at the man named Tobi in absolute fear. He prayed that he would never see that man again for as long as he lived.

That's when the paper bomb placed on his head exploded.

* * *

A small explosion followed closely by a bigger one went off in the area near her objective.

"Fuck."

"Stick to the plan," Hideo called out through the radio, "It shouldn't make any difference. Remember you are a traveling musician."

"Fuck Off, Hideo," Tayuya called back, "I know the god damn plan!"

It was a simple plan really. Any dumb ass could have thought it up. She was to walk into the camp playing a simple sleep genjutsu on her flute. Hideo and Anko would then kill the bandits while they were under the genjutsu's influence.

She thought it was the shittiest dumb ass plan to ever come from Hideo's mouth. She had to play a fucking lullaby on her flute while Hideo and Anko got to slaughter bandits!

Why couldn't she ever get the fun job?

Her thoughts became distracted as a man made his way up the road towards her. Their paths crossed momentarily. She thought nothing of him until he spoke to her.

"You're a little late, Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. I've already done the job for you."

Tayuya whipped her head around to stare at the man. He continued to walk innocently down the road as though he hadn't just killed an entire bandit camp.

"God I wish I could fucking do that." Tayuya grumbled as she continued on her way towards the camp.

* * *

"Damn. He torched the place," Anko stated kicking a burnt stool over before inspecting a tent.

"No shit," Tayuya retorted, "I'm pretty sure the guy over there is fucking toast."

The guy in question was just a pitch black corpse.

Anko whistled, "Not as bad as this guy here…This is a guy right?"

After a thorough investigation into the matter, Tayuya could only shrug her shoulders.

"Knock it off and stay focused," Hideo barked at the women, "You are Jounin. You know better. Now continue looking for anything salvageable."

"Whatever Kiss-Ass," Tayuya grumbled.

* * *

"So…you're saying that the mission was a failure." Tsunade asked.

"Failure isn't the right word. Technically they are still dead…we just weren't the ones who killed them."

"Hideo…"

Hideo gulped, "Well…"

"A man in a shitty orange mask barbecued the whole fucking campsite to hell." Tayuya cut in. "Forgive the bastard, Hag-sama. He's a pussy around women with power."

"Shut up, Tayuya."

"Fuck Yourself, Hideo!"

"You'd like that wouldn—"

"Enough," Tsunade stated causing the Jounin to bite their tongues. "So did you find anything among the remains?"

"Only this Hokage-sama," Anko jumped in before Hideo and Tayuya could speak. "It's a list of names of the people that went through the toll booth. The last name written is probably the one who destroyed the campsite."

Tsunade nodded as she looked down at the names listed on the paper before skimming down to the last one.

_Tobi- going to visit his friend in the woods._

The name was unfamiliar and held no place in the Konoha Bingo Book. However that's what had Tsunade worried.

"Very well. Collect your pay. You're dismissed."

* * *

It had been a long and taxing journey for Team Kakashi and Team Gai from Sunagakure. If it hadn't been for Chiyo's sacrifice, Naruto would have lost the only person that truly understood the life of a Jinchuuriki. He was lucky this time, but the confrontation with the Akatsuki made one thing perfectly clear. He needed to become stronger if he was going to put a dent in Akatsuki.

"Now youthful students of the Hidden Leaf Village!" Gai spoke out to the teams while reacquiring his grasp on the injured Kakashi. "Go and report your amazing success to Hokage-sama while I take this lug to the hospital! Dismissed!"

"Yes Gai-Sensei!" Rock Lee yelled out as Gai made a mad dash for the hospital with Kakashi reluctantly in tow.

The walk to the Hokage's Tower was a pleasant journey as Naruto talked with Neji about what he had done over the past three years and Neji's promotion to Jounin. Naruto had hoped to talk to Lee as well, but Lee ran off exclaiming something about being first to the Tower or running fifty laps around Konoha.

"Oh no, Lee is stirring up trouble again," Tenten sighed at the sight of Lee and a young woman in the distance.

Naruto had to squint his eyes to see that far. Lee was kneeling on the ground in front of the young woman. Was he proposing?! As Naruto walked a few paces closer to the pair in the distance…the unthinkable happened. Naruto went wide-eyed as the woman unleashed an insane combo of different Taijutsu moves on the unsuspecting Lee. The teams finally found themselves in front of Lee and the woman as she unleashed her final devastating blow by slamming Lee's head into the pavement.

Finally in front of her, Naruto could take in the characteristics of the woman. She was decked out in a red jounin vest with a black long-sleeved undershirt and matching black pants, all hidden beneath an opened up traveling cloak. She had long, wild hair that hooked over her left eye, bordering on a color somewhere between hot pink and fire red. Her body was slim and agile with well tone muscles that complemented a woman's body. Naruto wasn't a pervert but he predicted that Ero-sannin would rate her either a B-cup or a C-cup in the bosom department. Her visible right eye was a chocolate brown color that might normally look cute, but at the moment was adorned with a furious anger. To put it in simple words…She was drop dead gorgeous.

"This is the six hundred and forty second time I've rejected you! When are you going to give up you bowl-cut spandex wearing fucktard!" She yelled at the bloody form of Rock Lee.

But she cussed like a sailor. Naruto didn't know why but the girl seemed…familiar.

"He—y," Rock Lee chimed in starry eyed, "You remember how many times I've asked you out! For a moment I thought you had forgotten."

The only reply Lee got was an icy cold glare as he lost consciousness.

That glare! Naruto recollected back to right before he left the village. He had given this girl a tour of the village! But…what was her name again?

"Honestly Tayuya," Sakura sighed, "Do you have to be so rough on him? This is the third time this month he's going to have to be in the hospital!"

"Not my problem," Tayuya replied unremorsefully.

Tayuya-chan! Naruto felt a state of…uneasiness wash over him as she began looking at everyone who witnessed her victory against Lee. Finally she made eye contact with him. Her eyes went wide as a sick little smirk began to etch its way onto her face. Naruto gulped involuntarily.

"Oy, Sakura, you guys go on ahead. I'm gonna take Lee to the hospital. That okay?"

Sakura blinked before looking back and forth between the loud mouth and potty mouth.

"Uh…sure," Sakura reluctantly obliged as she slowly left with Neji and Tenten for the Hokage's office.

Naruto turned back to Tayuya hesitantly.

"So…should I be worried?"

**Author's Note: Wow...that ending...that's like...almost a cliffhanger...dude...Anyway hope you enjoyed it XD. Remember to REVIEW. I like reviews they make me happy in some unexplained way...I hope it wasn't too short for you. Like I said my detail development skills are coming back and I need to ease back into the groove. I think I said something like that earlier up top...but with my bad memory...who knows. Anyway see all of you when chapter 7 rolls onto the plate.**


	7. Naruto vs Tayuya

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. He belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Hell I don't even own Bleach.**

**Author's Note: I'm back again, but not at liberty to speak at the moment as I do not want to wake anybody up as I am uploading this relatively late. Sorry. I'll answer questions at another time. On with the Fic**

"There you are! I've been looking all over for—"

"Shh," Hideo exclaimed effectively biting Anko's head off, "It's fixing to get interesting!"

Anko recollected herself before taking notice to the wide variety of goodies and snacks that were arranged delicately around Hideo. She glared softly at him.

"You're going to get fatter than an Akimichi eating all that junk food."

Hideo sighed from irritation. "For crying out loud it's about to start!!"

Anko looked at him confusedly before taking in the scene. Last she checked they were still outside and on top of the finance building. What could possibly be so interesting that he had to bring all this food out to the middle of nowhere…?

That's when she saw it…two lone figures standing on the main street to the Hokage's Tower, but what were they…wait a minute…one of them was Tayuya!

"Move over," Anko exclaimed giddily, "and pass the dango!"

Hideo glared at the woman momentarily before passing said dango over. "I thought you got fat from eating—"

"Shut up, it's starting!"

"Yes mam…"

* * *

"So…should I be worried" Naruto asked forcing himself to calm down.

She looked at him smugly. Naruto had no clue what to expect from the girl in front of him, but what happened was probably the least expected but also the most obvious thing the girl would have done.

She gave him a nice right hook across the jaw.

Naruto flew back into a sign that read "Dr. Tite Kubo, Orthodontics." Naruto would later think back on this and wonder why that name sounded familiar, but right now he was busy as Tayuya charged at him.

She had caught him off guard but now he was ready…he hoped…

He dodged back and right as her left fist lunged for his head and retaliated with a one-eighty turn to back fist that smashed into her right cheek.

"Aah," she exclaimed faltering back a little from the hard blow. That's the second Naruto realized that he had hit a girl.

Guilt immediately attacked his insides as he broke one of the sacred law's of man. Never under any circumstances must you hit a girl.

* * *

"Oh…shit…"

"Damn that has got to hurt," Anko agreed as they watched Tayuya falter back from the blow.

"Oh…shit…" Hideo repeated again, "This is about to get really ugly…"

* * *

"I-I'm sorry, "Naruto gulped hesitantly, "I-I didn't mean…I mean…uh…I-I am so so sorry!"

Naruto bowed apologetically to Tayuya. Time froze as Naruto hoped she was contemplating his apology. Finally he could hear her foot steps as they walked up to him and stopped in front of him. The whole scene was strangely quiet before a feminine voice reached his ear.

"I'm going to fucking kill you."

Naruto looked up just in time to see her fist make contact with his chest effectively sending him into cardiac arrest before another blow to his chest knocked him right back out of it, but just as he tried to breathe back fresh air Tayuya kneed him in the gut as it became hard to breathe once again. The combo was then followed up by a swift kick across the face and a back kick to (where else) the back of his head.

It was a brilliant execution of taijutsu that put Naruto to the ground instantly. He struggled to bring air back to his lungs from the combo on his respiratory system. He could almost feel Tayuya smirking at her victory, but this wasn't over yet. No, not by a long shot if he had anything to say about it.

* * *

"Hell Yeah! Who taught her that?" Hideo exclaimed proudly as he chomped down on a nice chocolate-filled piece of taiyaki.

Anko rolled her eyes, "Well the Kyuubi-kid lasted longer than most of her opponents."

"You're kidding me," Hideo laughed, "You actually think this fight's over? Hell no! I didn't drag all this food out here for a five minute battle!"

Anko looked at Hideo confusedly. "You mean it's not over?"

"Ha!" Hideo laughed again, "Just wait and see."

* * *

Tayuya smirked down at her latest victory. As she began walking away she heard a shuffling sound coming from behind her. No way…what the fuck?!

She turned around and sure enough Uzumaki was pushing himself up off the pavement to a standing position. He was now sporting a nicely-placed bruise on his cheek and looked at her smugly. She scowled slightly at this turn of events.

"Not bad," he acknowledged, "but don't run away leaving a fight unfinished. That's bad etiquette."

"Tch," Tayuya smirked, "When did you learn such a big word Uzumaki? I heard you were the dumb-ass dropout in school."

Naruto frowned for a second before smiling confidently again. "I guess I'm just a little smarter than I used to be."

"Hmph," Tayuya snorted taking her flute out from inside her shinobi pouch, "We'll see…"

* * *

"Is she crazy?! If she uses a genjutsu in the middle of the city there's no telling how many people will get trapped in it!" Anko exclaimed.

Hideo just looked at her confusedly before reaching out and taking an earplug out of his ear. "Did you say something?"

When did he put those in?!

"I'm going to stop her."

Just as she was about to jump Hideo grabbed hold of her wrist.

"She's seventeen years old Anko. She knows perfectly well what she can and cannot get away with. Remember that if she does anything out of line I am to kill her immediately."

Anko calmed down at his words but was confused about one thing. "Why is she going this hard on Uzumaki? They only knew each other for a day at most."

Hideo nodded seriously. "That's why it's personal."

Anko was now confused beyond herself. "Sorry, but that doesn't make any—"

"Think of it this way," Hideo stated bluntly cutting her off, "You are the new kid at school and are looking for friends. You start making a friend with another student from class and depend on him to help you out. The next day, you figure out he is abandoning you for some obscure reason."

"So what does this story have to do with Uzumaki and Tayuya?" Anko questioned.

"Nothing…and everything," Hideo replied quietly, "It's really heart-breaking for a child when she feels she can trust and depend on him just to realize she can't.

Anko would have questioned further but a far away look had crossed Hideo's eyes. Anko smiled sympathetically before turning back to the fight.

* * *

"Damn," Naruto shouted as he dodged her summons's club. He knew she was giving it orders through her flute, but had no idea how to get around this beast without using up a lot of his chakra.

"Having fun yet?" She asked as he jumped out of the way of the insane summons's club.

The club. That was it! It was crazy but it might just work. He waited on baited breath as the summon once again brought his club down on him. He began running the distance needed and jumped just in time as the club slammed into the earth, missing him by a narrow margin.

The summon began lifting his club again and Naruto took his chance. He ran onto the edge of the club and was jettisoned towards the sky when the summon began shaking him off.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto yelled as a clone appeared and tossed him towards Tayuya.

She retaliated with another summoning as this time a summon with claws appeared to bar his path. Naruto scowled. He only had one option if he was going to get to that flute.

"Rasengan!" He yelled charging up the little ball of wind with explosive effect and smashed it through her summon with claws. The explosive effect knocked Tayuya back away from her summon as her flute flew from her hand and smashed against the side of a brick wall.

"Tch," Tayuya scowled as her summons were rendered useless before glaring at him. She came at him with a full frontal assault in mind. Naruto then realized something. Tayuya must not specialize in ninjutsu.

* * *

"This match is over," Hideo stated, "He's figured out her weakness."

"You don't seem surprised," Anko stated bluntly.

"I heard him and his teammate got the best of Kakashi-sempai and he's no pushover," Hideo replied uncaringly, "Besides it is to be expected of someone who trained under one of the sannin."

"That sucks," Anko smiled disappointedly, "I was really rooting for Tayuya too."

Hideo could only agree by nodding.

* * *

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Tayuya's eyes widened as the entire street filled with hundreds (maybe thousands) of Uzumaki clones. She fought as many as she could, but was inevitably restrained after they all tackled her at once.

The clones finally dissipated one after another until only one Uzumaki was left holding Tayuya down. Finally he pulled himself up before offering her a hand up. Tayuya looked at the hand like it would poison her and pulled herself up without help.

They were both exhausted and chakra depleted. That much was obvious, but what happened next surprised her.

"Alright, I'm done," Naruto said as he fell forward onto her shoulder as he lost consciousness.

She was surprised at first by how close his face landed to hers, but finally found enough strength left in her to push him aside and let him fall to the ground with a thud.

God she was exhausted. She pushed her legs forward down the street a little. All she wanted to do was go home and take a nice hot bath.

"Nice match, Tayuya," Hideo called out causing her to look up to where he was at the financial building, "Too bad it ended in a draw."

"What are you talking about?" Tayuya called out smirking as her eyes started flickering. "He passed out first."

That was the last thing she had left to say for the day as she collapsed into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Damn that was a good fight." Hideo chuckled as Tayuya collapsed.

"I don't think I've seen a fight like that in a long time," Anko agreed. "The last good one I remember seeing was Asuma vs. Kurenai."

"Who won?" Hideo asked.

"Who do you think?" Anko quizzed him.

Hideo didn't reply. It was just one of those questions women asked that you weren't supposed to answer.

"Come on," He replied, "We better get those two over to the hospital.

Anko shook her head at the disregard for the question, but obeyed his request. Within seconds Hideo and Anko disappeared for the hospital with Naruto and Tayuya in a swirl of leaves.

Leaving an unconscious Rock Lee to fend for himself.

**Author's Note: This chapter...not easy. Had to coreograph the fight myself while thinking strategically. It's a lot for an unintelligent person to handle. Anyway REVIEW. I like reviews. It's like chocolate. It never gets old. So REVIEW. For me? Please? Tell me what you thought. See you when the next chapter rolls out. Peace and Later**


	8. Hideo's Offer

**Author's Note: Forgive me. It's been awhile since my last update hasn't it. God knows you've forgotten about this fic by now. My main reason for not updating recently is this...The Noob of Fanfiction finally got some negative reviews to take him off cloud nine. I'm over that now and have moved on and hopefully have become a stronger writer because of it. I'm thankful that while some of the reviews were negative they were extremely constructive and only served to help me out. Thanks guys your the best.**

**I know now also that fight scenes will always have mixed reviews and you've just got to roll with the punches, so therefore this is my way of going with the flow...or rolling with the punches...eh whatever...**

**Questions**

**Voidangel Soren: I didn't get it out within a month of your review but I did do some of it blindfolded XD.**

**Benkei Atsumori: For right now Naruto is sticking to canon. I don't want to have to get too creative yet. XD. He will get stronger as time passes though.**

**Kyuubi Fanatic: It's all part of the plan. Though I'm not sure that even once Naruto and Tayuya are in a relationship they will play nice...we'll just have to wait and see.**

**CRaZY TeDDy and Narutomaniac: I attempted to remedy you're complaints this chapter as they have no overall meaning to the story in the long run, however whether you accept what I've created is for each of you to decide of your own accord. Sorry for not living up to expectations last chapter.**

**This chapter is short for the most part as I have a lot to say in author notes and what not but I'm sure you don't mind as long as the fic is updated. Anyway...on with the fic!**

The history behind the Konoha Hospital is no mystery. It was founded by a woman who believed it necessary for the leaf's shinobi to have a medic ninja handy in case another leaf shinobi was injured during a mission. The hospital was founded as a place where its patients could rest quietly and make a quick recovery.

However there are times when such foundations can be shattered like glass.

"This is all your fucking fault."

"My fault?! You attacked me first!

"Tch. I hate fucking excuses."

"But you started it!!"

"You haven't changed in the slightest."

"Well neither have you!"

Yeah…God have mercy on the doctors and nurses who tended to Naruto and Tayuya of the Hidden Leaf Village.

"If only Kiba Inuzuka was here the loud mouth trio would be complete."

"Shut the fuck up, Hideo!" Tayuya bellowed.

"Yeah! This is between me and that foul mouth!" Naruto chimed in.

Hideo sighed out loud as another wave of insults and verbal attacks were executed between the two ninja. Half of him toyed with the idea that they were enjoying arguing with each other the other half of him was resisting the urging to knock them both unconscious.

* * *

It took two hours and a berating from a nurse at her wits end before Naruto and Tayuya set aside their argument to get some rest. If not for his training in the anbu, Hideo would have laughed at the sheer hilarity of such petty arguments the two teenagers could conjure.

Normally Hideo would have a sarcastic remark to recite about the situation, but it seemed that sarcasm would have to be set aside as he readied himself for the coming messenger. He opened the window just as the messenger jumped onto the rooftop in front of the window.

"You have a message for me?"

The messenger gave a solemn nod. "Hideo Onji, the anbu require you for a reconnaissance mission. Hokage-sama has already given her approval."

Hideo turned grim instantly. He had hoped that he wouldn't have to work for the anbu any longer, but it seemed their captain had different plans for him. Who was he to neglect his village's decision?

"Very well. When do I set out?"

"Nine days from now." The messenger replied. "If all goes as planned you will be gone a day or two. You'll have to stop by headquarters for a mission briefing."

"…Understood."

* * *

Naruto awoke quietly to the night time world. It took him a minute to realize he was in the hospital…again. God he just couldn't find a way to escape this prison! He had to think for a second before finally recollecting the events just before he fell asleep.

"Well look who finally decided to wake up."

Naruto turned abruptly towards the source of the voice, Hideo, who was leaning back in a chair beside Tayuya.

"Why are you still—?"

"Shh," Hideo cut him off, "let's not wake the lady. Can you stand?"

Naruto tested himself and felt no problem. In fact he felt good as new. With a quick nod, he hopped off his bed and followed Hideo out of the room.

The darkness shrouded the hallway completely and the only light that could be seen was the flickering one at the very end. Naruto made a note that when he became Hokage, he wouldn't have scary hospitals. How were people supposed to get better if they had a heart attack from seeing scary hospital corridors?

Coming out into the hallway, Naruto hadn't a clue what to expect from Hideo. Did he intend to reprimand him for not taking the fight serious enough? After all it was due to his carelessness that Tayuya was able to hit him hard enough to cause lung damage.

The doctors said that Tayuya's taijutsu combo had caused his lungs to stop working properly during the battle. It would explain why he started breathing harder and tiring easier as the battle raged. If one thing was for certain he was never going to hold back in a fight again! It was at this point that Hideo finally decided to cut off Naruto's thoughts…

"You got to admit she's got spirit," Hideo stated as Naruto finally refocused on him. He guessed that Hideo was referring to Tayuya

"Sometimes maybe she's a little _too_ spirited," Naruto added to the awkward conversation.

Hideo laughed but shook his head condescendingly, "I believe a spirited shinobi will always be able to find the strength to defeat opponents that are ten times stronger than him. After all, you fought and beat the Kazekage a few years ago didn't you?"

Naruto blinked involuntarily before nodding his head excitedly. "Yeah! That's what I think too! Though I probably would have beat Tayuya no prob if I hadn't been holding back…"

Hideo frowned and shrugged his shoulders, "Shinobi should always be ready for battle. To make up such excuses is only to conserve pride. Real shinobi have no pride. They fight their disadvantages and find victory even if defeat is inevitable. I taught Tayuya that long ago. To hold back on her behalf was simply unnecessary."

Naruto blinked again. Hideo didn't seem the type, but he definitely held a lot of wisdom to subjects that most people had trouble comprehending. Even now, Naruto heard and agreed with everything said, but failed to grasp the entire concept behind the words. Naruto's head was beginning to hurt…

"Uzumaki," Hideo called, "what are you doing nine days from now?"

Naruto paused to think about it. "I should be coming back from a mission in Grass Country early that morning." He answered questioningly.

Hideo nodded his head up and down in a contemplating fashion. "I have a favor to ask."

Naruto blinked a third time. What could Hideo want with him? It's not like they really knew each other.

"I have a mission that day," Hideo continued, "so someone needs to keep an eye on Tayuya while I'm gone. To tell you the truth she isn't very open to anyone besides her teammates and you. And unluckily for you Anko's busy so…"

"So I have to be the babysitter…" Naruto threw his head down dejectedly.

"Look at it this way," Hideo smiled. "She can feed herself, absolutely refuses to cry, and can use the potty without any help! Just make sure she doesn't get out of control."

Naruto decided to disregard everything Hideo just said. It was too confusing! Wasn't Tayuya a teenager…? Or maybe she was really a baby in a teenager's body! This invoked strange ideas of what a baby Tayuya would look like, which then lead to a curiosity of what baby Tayuya's first word was, which lead to…

"Naruto…"

Naruto snapped out of his befuddled state to stare at Hideo who had his eyebrow quirked in a strange way. Yeah…Hideo was definitely doubting his sanity right now…

"So I can count on you right?" Hideo asked eyebrow still quirked.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded.

Hideo acknowledged the answer soundly and quietly took his leave. Naruto stood in a transfixed state as the finality of the mission he had just accepted weighed down on his persona.

One thing was for certain. Nine days from now, Naruto would be seeing hell on earth.

* * *

**2 days later…**

"The plan's foolproof."

"I still can't believe you're trying to play cupid. Grow up. Let them go about their business." Anko berated.

"But it's just so much fun!" Hideo pouted pushing his index fingers together innocently.

Anko rolled her eyes. "Tayuya hasn't even shown the remotest of interest in the guy! So why are you…?" Hideo cut her off by putting his finger over her mouth. He was now standing right in front of her face.

"It's all about chemistry." Hideo stated flirtatiously.

"Chemistry…?" Anko questioned innocently.

"Naruto and Tayuya are like two hydrogen atoms. Alone they probably would never even think about coming together. Not to mention they are prone to being…"flammable." But if you introduce an oxygen atom they all come together to make water. Now they wouldn't exactly be flammable anymore if they were water now would they?" Hideo explained.

"So in other words…you want to be a third wheel for the rest of your life?" Anko smirked.

It was as though a ton of bricks landed on Hideo's head. Anko couldn't help but laugh at the combined stupidity of Hideo's plan and face.

"I don't have to stand here and take this," Hideo grumbled before slowly walking off to brood over his thoughts.

"For the record two hydrogen atoms can come together. It's called deuterium Mr. Chemist." Anko chuckled.

Hideo gave her the bird.

* * *

The log house that Yamato had made was alive with the unmistakable yelling of one Sakura Haruno. Luckily for Sai and Yamato they were out patrolling the area at the moment.

"You agreed to what?!"

Naruto sighed. "I don't know either! He just looked so intimidating, so I agreed with everything he said!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Well he was in the anbu wasn't he…still you'll have to be careful. God knows how many times she's put Lee in the hospital."

"Don't worry, Sakura. It won't be so bad. It'll probably be just like when I gave her a tour around town."

"If you say so," Sakura chuckled before rolling her eyes again. "If I'm lucky maybe you'll fall for her and stop chasing after me."

"Only in your dreams." Naruto stated loudly. "I would chase you until the end of time! Now and forever!"

"That was extremely corny, Naruto…"

"Eh!" Naruto yelled as his jaw dropped. "Ero-sannin said girls like that kind of stuff!"

"And that's why he's an ero-sannin!" Sakura yelled at him as though he was a retard.

"Ugh forget it. I'll just have to try again another day," Naruto said turning over. "Goodnight Sakura."

"Night," Sakura returned the pleasantry as the blush from his compliment finally drained from her face.

"Naruto-baka…"

**Author's Note: Like I said short but sweet. The story is evolving a bit more this chapter. You get more of an idea of what is to come. Or maybe you don't who knows. All I can say is continue reading and everything will work out. REVIEW I sound like a screaming banshee by now but please REVIEW. It means the world to authors...seriously...Like to give a shout out of thanks to Sentiment Remains for the kind words that brought me out of my stupor. Much abliged. Anyway Chapter 8 is done! See you when Chapter 9 is rolling out. Peace and Later.**


	9. Paint and Melody

**Author's Note: Thank you all for all the amazing reviews. Once again all of you prove that I'm dumber than I think I am XP. Had no idea what deuterium and hydrogen or any of that stuff was after all. So that's why I failed chemistry...anyway...moving on XP. I never realized that so many chem majors read my stories. It's kind of cool. Gives me more of an idea of who my audience is.**

**For the record this is my longest chapter I've ever written...ever. Yay for you guys...ugh for me. I'm tired now. Ha Ha. This not only is my longest chapter but you begin to get an idea of where things are going, and it may still need a bit of tweaking here and there...particularly in some areas that I won't mention until the bottom author note. Anywho...let's see if there were any questions this time around...Nope. no questions. I like that. Makes things easier. **

**Anyway I have no other reason to keep you waiting on the fic...unless you want to talk to me before reading it...No? Tch Figures...lol. I had fun writing this, so I hope you have fun reading this. As I've said countless of times by now...On With The Fic **

"Tayuya…" He knocked.

"Tayuya!" He knocked again.

"Goddamn it, Tayuya open the door now!" Hideo yelled before unleashing a barrage of punches on the door.

The door opened abruptly almost causing him to lose his balance. Tayuya answered the door groggily in her black nightgown. After taking a moment to wipe the matter from her eyes, the early morning finally reached Tayuya's…not so pleasant face.

"What the fuck, Hideo! Why do you always have to unleash hell on my goddamn door?!" Tayuya yelled at him.

"Because if I didn't you would sleep in until fucking noon!" Hideo shouted back before calming himself. "That aside, I have a mission today."

"Great! Where are we—"

"No no," Hideo cut her off, "I said _I_ have a mission. So I've hired you a babysitter for the day."

The look in Tayuya's eyes were almost menacing enough to burn a hole in his soul.

"Don't give me that look. If it was up to me I'd let you do whatever you wanted, but the Hokage's orders are absolute."

"Tch," Tayuya gritted her teeth in anger, "I'm so fucking tired of all this shit."

Hideo could tell that if he didn't calm her down she was going to start a tantrum that he really didn't have time to deal with at the moment.

"Calm down. I've tried to make the arrangement as relaxing as possible."

Hideo went temporarily deaf to the barrage of curses flowing from Tayuya's mouth. He thought her tantrum had ended as she stormed back into her apartment, but once again he was proven wrong as she came back out in her normal attire and the new flute he had bought for her. She walked past him and out towards the training grounds.

"Tayuya? Where are you going?" Hideo called out to her.

"To get some fucking air!"

Hideo bit back a sarcastic retort and allowed himself to laugh a little at her childish behavior as she walked off to vent her anger. She would never know what ends he went to for her. Unable to take time out of his own duties to settle down and start the family he had always dreamed of having. Unable to attend his ex-girlfriend's wedding or his best friend's funeral. The only two people he had left in his life were his brother and Tayuya.

A shadow jumped to the top of the roof from a building nearby. An anbu agent coming to collect him for the mission.

"Sir, are you prepared? We have three minutes till we move out."

Hideo looked at the anbu, and suddenly recalled a twenty-two year old version of himself and the one mission that revoked his anbu status. A mission involving an annoying foul-mouthed red-haired girl.

"I feel like a coward, but in a weird way," Hideo stated to the impatient anbu.

"Sir, we really need—"

"I'm brave enough to go out and serve my country, but too afraid to ask for a signature on a simple set of papers from one of the few precious people in my life."

Hideo took a set of adoption papers from inside his pant's pocket. The anbu watched him carefully as Hideo walked to his apartment and slid the papers under the door.

'I'll give them to her later…'

* * *

"Why did I agree to do this?!" Naruto screamed to the heavens as he walked down the short walkway to the ruddy little apartment he remembered to be Tayuya's. He knocked excessively on Apartment #11. No reply.

"Tayuya! I know this is your apartment." Naruto yelled out. Still no reply. "I'm giving you to the count of three before I come in there!" His threat was met with silence. "One…Two….THREE!!"

Naruto charged the door breaking the lock instantly and knocking the door off both its hinges. Naruto collapsed onto the carpet floor dazedly before taking a quick look around the apartment. No Tayuya.

Naruto took a few seconds to realize what he just did. He broke down a door, but this wasn't any old door. This was Tayuya's door. This sudden realization caused Naruto to sweat feverishly. 'What if she comes back and sees what I did! What if she…'

Thoughts of barbaric and rage filled torture entered Naruto's consciousness and caused his brain to jump start. He began thinking rational thoughts. He needed to get a replacement door fast!

Naruto ran next door to Apartment #12 and began banging on the door hurriedly. An elderly woman opened the door.

"Is there something I can help you with young man?" The elderly woman asked feebly.

Naruto grabbed hold of the woman and shook her repeatedly, "TELL ME WHERE THE NEAREST HARDWARE STORE IS…NOW! IT'S A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!!"

The elderly woman jabbed him in the gut with her cane causing Naruto to double over. "Bitch-assed mother fucker don't be grabbing me and shaking me all over the goddamn place!"

Naruto took a second to look up at the elderly lady. Did she really just say that?! Naruto would have questioned his beliefs about the elderly from that day forward…but then he realized that Tayuya lived right next door.

"Hardware…store…?" Naruto managed to spit out.

The elderly lady pointed her cane in the general direction of the training grounds. "There's one about two blocks down that road. If memory serves it should be near that old #3 Training Ground those ninja folk enjoy playin a—"

"Thanks old lady." And Naruto zoomed off in the general direction the old lady pointed without giving her a second thought.

"Bastardized bitch-assed fuckers come knocking on my door without saying goodbye. Fucker." The elderly lady grumbled before shutting the door.

* * *

"Damn, I had to spend a whole D-Rank salary for this door," Naruto grumbled as he began lugging the door out of the store. "This thing's heavier than I thought it would be too…this sucks."

Halfway back to the apartments, Naruto heard a beautiful noise that he had never heard before coming from the training grounds. He walked almost unconsciously toward the beautiful melody that was resonating all around the grounds. Naruto calmed his senses to focus on the exact place the sound was coming from.

Naruto finally spotted the instrument making the beautiful sound. A flute, but that wasn't what he ended up keeping his eyes on as he noticed the person playing it.

He didn't know whether he was under the influence of a genjutsu and he didn't really care anymore. The woman sitting in the tree playing her very soul into the flute was beautiful in every single way. She seemed…at peace while she played. Like the problems of every day life no longer mattered.

As she ended her dramatic melody, Naruto stood in awe at the red-haired girl. He couldn't help himself. He started clapping.

"Hey! That was amazing!" Naruto called out to her. The girl having not realized that she was being watched jumped in surprise. Her surprise caused her to lose her balance on the tree limb and fall.

Naruto reacting quickly, threw the door to catch her landing. He was surprised when she used the door as a stepping stone to rebalance herself and land gracefully on the ground.

Naruto ran up to the girl and suddenly realized that the beautiful woman who played the most beautiful music in the world was none other than the foul-mouthed, egotistical Tayuya! Naruto had the sudden urge to blame everything he just thought on genjutsus.

"Ta-Ta-Tayuya?!" Naruto stated dumbly.

* * *

This day was supposed to be filled with avoiding whoever Hideo sent to keep an eye on her, but no, out of all the fucking days to run into Naruto Uzumaki it had to be fucking today!

"I bet the bastard spy is watchin me right now…" Tayuya grumbled.

"Di jou shay sumfin?" Naruto asked while chowing down on the one true love of his life. Ichiraku's ramen.

"Nothing important," Tayuya sighed irritably. "So you haven't told me yet…Why the fuck are you carrying around that door?"

Naruto began to reply but Tayuya cut him off, "Swallow first."

Naruto gulped the food down. "He-he funny story about that, you see…"

"Hey Naruto I—oh—hello Tayuya…?"

Tayuya turned around to see the pink-haired bitch that worked for the drunk-assed hokage. Yep it was official. She was in hell.

"Hewwo Sakuwa—"

"Swallow," Tayuya and Sakura scolded him at the same time. Tayuya and Sakura locked glances for a second before Tayuya went back to eating her ramen.

"What's up, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura immediately resumed her focus on Naruto, but felt as though she was intruding on something so she gave the most common reply a girl could give when put in this situation.

"Oh no, I don't mean—you look busy I'll just tell you some other ti—"

"Hell no," Tayuya jumped up suddenly, "this sure as hell isn't what you think it is!"

Tayuya looked to Naruto and noticed that he had no clue what was going on…useless.

"I'm leaving. Money's on the table old man."

Tayuya grabbed some money from her pocket, tossed it on the counter, and began storming off toward her house. She was surprised, however, when someone started calling out her name.

"Tayuya! Wait up!" Naruto yelled out still dragging that fucking door behind him. Tayuya rolled her eyes and kept walking.

* * *

"You're sure nobody's home?"

"Positive! Look at it! The door's already been busted open and I'm sure there's still something worth taking in there!"

"Well if you're sure…"

The two thieves swiftly and stealthily made their way into the busted down apartment and began looting the place for treasure. Unfortunately for them the original burglar must have already stolen all the valuable stuff, because there wasn't jack shit in any of the drawers and tables. Nothing was even hidden under the bed.

"This girl doesn't have jack shit in her house." The first thief yelled aggravatedly.

"No," The second thief smirked, "but she has a wide variety of treasures in the panty drawer!"

Within five seconds the first thief and second thief were raiding the panty drawer with their perverted thoughts and sexual desires. It wasn't until they both felt a tapping on their shoulders that they stopped their raidings. But when they turned…

"Get the FUCK out of my house!" A red-haired vixen yelled. That was the last thing the two thieves seen before darkness overtook them. They would never remember this heist. In fact they wouldn't be coming out of their comas for another five years, but that is a story for another time…

* * *

"You…know…that was mean…making me…chase you down like that…That door's pretty heav—who're those guys?" Naruto asked out of breath.

"Just garbage I forgot to clean up." Tayuya replied irritated throwing the two thieves into the dumpster. "So I'm going to ask you again, and this time you better pray your answer satisfies. What the fuck is that door for?"

Naruto felt like her glare was piercing his heart with the rustiest dagger in the world over and over again. Tayuya was obviously having a bad day, and now hell was fixing to be unleashed on him. If Naruto didn't think fast he was going to—"

"Times up bastard," Tayuya lunged at him and started strangling him.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!" Naruto yelled out at Tayuya who surprisingly let go of him. "Jeez you didn't have to get all physical on me."

"Tch…" Tayuya grumbled while putting her fingers to her nose in an attempt to calm a starting headache. "Just fix my goddamn door."

"Yes mam."

* * *

"Do you have any idea what the fuck you're doing?"

"Hey relax. I've got this covered. My house is so rundown I was constantly having to repair it as a kid." Naruto replied confidently to Tayuya's statement.

"Yet you didn't even know there was a hardware store down the lane." Tayuya said rolling her eyes.

"Well...I kind of forgot it was there since its last owner wouldn't ever let me buy anything there…" Naruto muttered quietly.

Tayuya was puzzled by what Naruto said, but figured if he had problems with some people in the town it wasn't her place to bother. After all, she wasn't exactly the town favorite either.

"But the new owner was really nice! She even let me use my discount coupon from three years ago," Naruto laughed.

A quiet pause filled the room as Naruto got measurements for the door and tried to fit the hinges in the right spots.

"Hey Tayuya," Naruto broke the quietness, "What was it like? Living here in the village?"

"Tch. It's the most goddamn boring town I've ever seen in my entire life." Tayuya stated irritatedly. "The food sucks. The people are a bunch of mother fuckers who don't have the balls to do anything too bad. The place is loaded with perverted garbage…"

"So if you hate it so much why have you stayed so long?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Tch. Because if I take even a step outside of the city the anbu are allowed to throw a kunai through my fucking head!" Tayuya yelled aggravated.

"There! Good as new!" Naruto stated. Sure enough Tayuya had a brand new working door.

"Tch…thanks for that," Tayuya mumbled. "You can show yourself ou—"

Naruto grabbed hold of Tayuya's hand and pulled her up from the bed where she was laying.

"Follow me."

"Where are we—?"

"Do you like painting?"

* * *

"So you're telling me that this…Akatsuki Organization…is after the jinchuuriki?"

"Yes Raikage-sama," Hideo replied, "We think they have ways of extracting the bijuu from them. It has already happened to the Kazekage of Sunagakure. They only need seven more from what our information has gathered. Which means both of your jinchuuriki are in danger."

"Ha," The Raikage laughed, "With all due respect captain…there is no warrior stronger than our jinchuuriki.

"With all due respect Raikage-sama," Hideo replied quietly, "you're overconfident in your men and underestimating your opponent."

The Raikage paused in his laughter and glared at Hideo menacingly. "Tell the leaf to stay out of our affairs. My men can handle anything that is thrown at—"

"Captain!" a leaf anbu exclaimed as she burst into the room.

"What is the meaning of—?!" The Raikage started but was cut off.

"The two-tailed jinchuuriki is dead. The bijuu was ripped out of her!"

The Raikage stood speechless over the news he had heard. There were no words that could describe this absurd news. It was impossible…

"With all due respect sir, where is the eight-tailed jinchuuriki?" Hideo asked smirking.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing?" Tayuya asked bluntly as Naruto began investigating the surrounding area as stealthily as he could.

"It should be right…here!" Naruto exclaimed upon finding it. A part of the fence was covered by a fence-painted blanket. If Naruto hadn't pointed it out, she wouldn't have known that part of the fence was fake.

She peeked her head behind the blanket to find a small little patch of land. Not really big enough to be a secret spot, but definitely a nice place to hide things.

"Catch."

Tayuya barely reacted in time as a can of red paint was thrown into her arms. "Alright, we got the paint so now what do we do?"

"We're going to paint the Hokage Mountain!" Naruto exclaimed.

Tayuya sweat dropped. "You're out of your fucking mind aren't you? There's no way in hell we could get away with that!"

"Well then…we won't!" Naruto replied both excitedly and dumbly.

"You _are_ out of your fucking mind!"

"Ha ha," Naruto laughed, "Come on Tayuya I thought that this place was boring because there's no big crimes? Let's pull off the biggest prank of our lives!"

"But that's _suicide_! Especially now when everyone's fixing to get off from work!"

"Just makes it that much better!" Naruto exclaimed happily

"This is insane!" Tayuya grumbled worriedly.

* * *

"Check the surrounding area. According to Raikage-sama, the cabin the jinchuuriki is staying at should be somewhere in this vicinity. He must be warned at all costs." Hideo stated.

The anbu spread out across the area and began searching far and wide for the cabin where the eight tails was training. Before he knew it, Hideo had been searching for two hours with no luck, until finally a small cabin by the riverside came into view. Hideo made his way up to the door of the little cabin and knocked slowly.

The door opened slowly and he was greeted by a tall man with seven swords on his back. Hideo sighed in relief. According to the Raikage this was the man he was looking for. Killerbee.

"Seems I'm gettin a lot of unwanted visitors lately. Come in. You can keep the idiot company while I finish my meditating." Killerbee acknowledged.

Hideo walked into the small little cabin. There really wasn't much to it. A table, chair, mat, and stove were the only things that made up the furniture in the cabin. Killerbee tossed himself down on the mat and entered a meditative state leaving Hideo to entertain his "guest."

The guest was sitting in the only chair available in the small cabin and looked happy and patient to be where he was. Nothing about the man really made him stand out from anybody else, but there was one very distinguishing feature about the man.

The bright orange mask he had dawned on his face.

"Hi," the man greeted kindly, "my name is Tobi."

* * *

"Get back here you crazy kids!!"

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH US ANBU BITCHES!!" Tayuya laughed excitedly.

"Tayuya I think you're having fun with this." Naruto grinned happily as Tayuya blushed embarrassedly.

"Just run faster!" Tayuya exclaimed happily as she gave off an extra burst of speed to leave Naruto in the dust.

As he rounded the corner, Naruto realized that Tayuya had disappeared. She had ducked into the paint bucket hideout. Naruto went around the block and down a lane before circling back and ducking into the hideout as well. It would make the anbu's job a little harder when it came to tracking them.

"Tch. Took you long enough." Tayuya smirked

Naruto didn't have a smart comeback to say to that, so instead he began preparing himself for another three hours of running. Just as he was about to go out Tayuya caught his hand.

"What is it?' Naruto asked.

"…lets just let them catch us now. I'm too tired to run anymore anyway."

"…alright."

They sat inside their little hideaway quietly. Neither spoke for the longest time, which made Naruto relatively uncomfortable. Just as he was about to start an ice breaker, Tayuya spoke up.

"…I…I've never had this much fun before in my life," Tayuya admitted embarrassedly, "What I mean is…I…no…fuck I'm not good at this!"

"Just say thanks." Naruto replied softly. If someone told him earlier this morning that today he would start having feelings for Tayuya, he would probably laugh in their face and say that the likelihood of that happening was the same as Kakashi revealing his face to the world.

Yet somehow, once he was finally able to work his way under Tayuya's temper, he found that she wasn't as bad as everyone made her out to be. In some ways she was a lot like him. Always hiding her true self behind small facades of anger and foul language.

He only had a crush on Tayuya though. He liked Sakura…didn't he? No matter how many times he repeated that to himself, he couldn't help but notice how close his lips were coming to hers.

"Caught you!" Iruka snapped as he tossed the blanket covering aside. The sudden snap caused any romantic moment Naruto and Tayuya might have had to be completely erased from his mind.

"Naruto. I should have known. And this time you've gotten Tayuya involved as well?" Iruka sighed. "Come on you two. We're going straight to the Hokage for your punishment."

Tayuya looked at him curiously, "You've done this before?"

"Maybe just once or twice."

"Try nine, Naruto, that's the right answer." Iruka sighed.

Tayuya smirked.

* * *

"So do you realize the consequences of the actions you have commited," Tsunade asked the two troublemaking shinobi.

Naruto and Tayuya nodded though not very ashamedly.

"Very well," Tsunade nodded to Iruka, "Get them each a bucket and a wash rag to scrub the monument clean."

"Understood Hokage-sama," Iruka nodded.

"A washrag?! Naruto yelled. "Granny at least give us a scrub brush! A washrag's not going to take all of that off!"

"I see," Tsunade smirked as a clever idea came to mind. "Tayuya you may use a scrub brush. Naruto you have to use paper towels.

"That's unfair!" Naruto exclaimed.

"You two are dismissed,"

And with that Naruto was dragged out of the room.

"Hopefully the city will stay quiet for a little while now," Tsunade sighed before taking out a bottle of Smirnoff. Just as she was pouring herself a drink two anbu appeared inside her office.

"What is it," Tsunade asked looking at both anbu soldiers.

"Urgent news Hokage-sama. The fire temple is being attacked by two men wearing Akatsuki cloaks. Fire Temple is requesting back up." The first anbu stated hurriedly.

"They're making their move then. Send Asuma, Team Ten, and two other Jounin as back up. Tell them to hurry." Tsunade ordered quickly.

"Understood Hokage-sama," The first anbu replied and disappeared in a swirl of leaves to follow his orders.

"Next," Tsunade stated.

"Mam, the Raikage is in a rage. The jinchuuriki of his country have been slain by Akatsuki. Captain Onji has been severely wounded while trying to protect the jinchuuriki. They're not sure if he's going to make it…"

Tsunade took the information in slowly before nodding quietly. "Pull out. Get Captain Onji back to Konoha as quickly as possible. I'll be waiting at the hospital for his arrival. If he dies I want to make sure that every matter was taken to try and save him."

"Yes Hokage-sama," The second anbu replied before following the same actions as the first anbu.

Tsunade grabbed her coat and hurried out the door for the hospital as fast as possible. "Hideo don't you dare die on that girl just yet. If you die she has nothing left."

With that final thought she closed the door to her office.

**Author's Note: Ok I get it. There are a TON of things happening this chapter. Some of it's random. Some of it's plot. And some of it comes from straight out of nowhere. Basically the parts I mentioned that I'm not sure I can considered "all the kinks worked out" on is the part with Naruto and Tayuya in the little hideaway. That part wasn't easy and I think I confused wordings and all kinds of crap. Can't exactly work it out right now because it's three in the morning here and I'm about to collapse from exhaustion. Anyway if you have any suggestions to making that part better...I'm open to it.**

**By the way...What do you think about the newest untanglement of things involving Hideo? Cross your fingers he pulls through. You never know what I'll do. Ha ha. Anyway this is where the plot of the manga is going to start deteriorating. I'm no longer following the exact plot line for part of the manga as you may or may not have noticed. Tobi killed Killerbee. Not Sasuke...I mean God...wait what? Anyway things will start getting more interesting from now on. I hope you are still enjoying the fic and that you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. lol. Particularly the elderly lady. Gotta love the elderly.**

**Anyway Please REVIEW!!**

**Peace and Later readers. **


	10. Memories

**"Someone freaking kill that stilldeluded guy already. He's such a bastard making us wait all this time for the next freaking chapter!!!"**

**And for that I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I have been working on getting things just right for this chapter the last two months, because of course, it involves another battle. My last battle scene didn't go over so well to most of my readers so I have been trying to work diligently and calculatingly about fixing my battle scenes. I lost a lot of readers for this novel because my last fight scene "sucked". Haha.**

**I've kept you all waiting too long for this chapter. I'm guessing you're all wondering if Hideo's okay or not? I guess maybe you should read and find out...**

His eyes were flickering open and close as he continually forced life to stay in his body. He knew that if he managed to fall asleep he would never wake from his slumber. If there was only one necessary thing that needed to be known about Hideo Onji, it was this: no matter what, he was always bound to find trouble wherever he went…

At the moment, he found himself on the back of a medic-nin rushing him back to Konoha for emergency care. The Raikage hadn't taken lightly to the sarcastic humiliation he had given him in his office, and thus he was not allowed treatment. He always figured his sarcasm would get him in trouble one of these days, but had to admit that he was regretting it now as he started coughing up a large amount of blood and watched it as it carefully dripped down his face and onto the medic-nin's vest.

"There's nothing more I can do for you." The medic stated while picking up the pace, "You have a lot of internal bleeding that's been suppressed, but my abilities aren't enough to heal it completely."

Typical. Sometimes he just had to laugh at his luck. Nothing had ever gone as planned for him. Not even since he was a kid…

* * *

"_Alright, how about you next." His Jounin-sensei acknowledged him to which he stood up._

"_My name is Hideo Onji," He stated quite clearly and a little irritatedly. "I am being forced to become a great ninja, because my father wishes it."_

_The look on his sensei's face was as close to priceless as a ninja's face could get. Hideo was almost positive that the man had never heard a reply like that before._

"_Well," his sensei sighed, "So long as you're willing I guess…"_

* * *

It was true. Neither he nor his brother had any desire to want to be ninja when they were younger, but unfortunate circumstances had forced them into it.

His father was originally a ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village. Because of some hard times induced by a harsh dictator, his father had faked his own death and escaped to the Hidden Leaf Village bringing jutsu of all different types with him. His father had no special eye like the Sharingan to immediately memorize jutsu, he had literally memorized over a hundred jutsu from the Hidden Cloud Village the old fashion way.

And he had to pass his legacy on to his children.

Hideo spent one year in his Genin Squad before achieving the rank of Chuunin. It wouldn't have happened if his father had not drilled every possible jutsu he could down his throat. It was safe to say that he grew to hate his father over time. And that was just saying it nicely…but at the ripe age of fourteen things took a turn he never expected.

* * *

"_Keep that damnable creature back!" A Jounin yelled before launching a handful of kunai with explosive tags at the beast that lay before them._

_It was something straight out of a nightmare. A giant fox was lashing at the hundreds with out the slightest flicker of mercy hiding inside its evil eyes. Everyone was forced once again to jump back as far as they could as the fox sent yet another explosive amount of chakra hurtling toward the ninjas._

_All techniques were proving useless. Some of the more foolish ninja had begun charging the beast, but fell dead right before making contact. The beast had a lethal dosage of chakra poisoning that inhabited the very aura around him. Anyone sporting a wound allowed the poison to enter their system and fell dead not even a minute later._

_The fox lashed his tails behind him creating a fiery whirlwind that charred a small group of jounin that couldn't get out of its range._

_It was a beast unlike any that he had ever seen before…and it scared the hell out of him. It was impossible…this thing…it couldn't be beaten!_

_He fell to his knees as panic started to engulf him, and it was like the fox could smell his fear. The fox turned in his direction and began charging another of his explosive chakra blasts from his mouth._

_Time seemed to slow down as the blast eradicated everything as it hurtled its way toward him…It was over for him…_

"_SUMMONING JUTSU!"_

_He watched wide-eyed as a gigantic frog appeared from out of nowhere and cleaved the blast in two sending the lethal blast off in two different directions and out of harms way._

_His life had been spared by some miraculous miracle…He sighed in relief as darkness overtook him._

* * *

The Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life to seal the beast that still haunted his memories. His mother and father were killed in the attack, and his brother Itsuki would never be able to walk again.

Hideo was forced into a very unsettling predicament of caring for his brother at every given second. His brother was just a year younger than him. Hideo couldn't even begin to remember how many times he had to listen to Itsuki cry at night. Simple tasks became frustrating for him, and Hideo, one who had never really invested too much time with his brother, now found him as his sole caretaker.

Health and welfare benefits were pathetic to say the least so eventually a Chuunin's paycheck just wasn't enough to keep everything up and running in the house. At the age of seventeen he took the Jounin exams and passed with flying colors. At twenty he was forced to join anbu. It wasn't until Tsunade became Hokage that such benefits finally began to stabilize them out again.

That was about the time that he had met Tayuya…

He was ordered by Tsunade to always keep a close tab on Tayuya since she was an enemy-nin, but he knew there was never a need to do so. She slowly became a very stable part of his life. When he couldn't be there, Tayuya was the one that checked on Itsuki. Deep down…she never did have an evil heart. She was very caring, but hid it underneath her attitude.

Unfortunately, the village didn't take a good liking to her. Somehow, word leaked that she used to be an enemy ninja and the village didn't take the information too well. Tsunade thus created Team Sound for him to lead. His teammates were Tayuya and Anko.

Anko…he had never allowed himself the idea of a family…but he had grown so fond of her. Tayuya had told him to stop being a pussy and ask the bitch out. All he could do was chuckle then…but now…he kind of wished he had taken the advice…

"Captain, hang in there, Konoha is just ahead." The medic-nin said to which she got no reply…

"…Captain Onji…?"

* * *

"That's weird. It's beginning to rain," Naruto spoke aloud as him and Tayuya walked outside the hokage tower.

"Tch. Fuck that." Tayuya groaned. It had been sunny all day and it was strange that a cloud had come up from out of nowhere.

"Tayuya! Naruto!"

The two in question turned around hesitantly at hearing their names barked out. What could the ole hag Hokage want now?

When they turned to see her it was blatantly obvious that something was wrong. Her face remained unreadable though…

"Follow me." She ordered quietly.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

Tsunade didn't reply, she just kept walking towards the hospital…

"Did somebody get hurt?" Naruto asked again as rain began to trickle down from the sky and shower them. Once again, Tsunade said nothing…

* * *

"Good God, Tobi, what the hell happened to you, hmm?" Deidara asked as he gave his partner a look over.

The Akatsuki cloak Tobi had worked so hard for looked like it had been through a hurricane. Cuts and scuff marks were present all over the rags were present all over. A sleeve was missing from the garment as well as the ends of the cloak had been shredded. But what might have shocked Deidara the most were the cracks that were present on Tobi's orange mask.

As if to answer his question, Tobi tossed the body of a man down to the floor in front of Deidara. Upon futher investigation Deidara realized that it was the eight-tailed Jinchuuriki.

"Good god, Tobi, you tried to take one of the stronger bijuu on by yourself, hmm?" Deidara asked. "Got to admit, I didn't think you could even fight."

Tobi didn't feel like throwing on his normal "happy go lucky" façade. He had been foolish…

* * *

"_Hi, my name is Tobi."_

_The young anbu obviously knew what the cloak symbolized and had probably been briefed on the danger of such an organization. He would soon be cursing his luck as he would soon be fighting the true leader of Akatsuki…_

"_Hideo is my name. What brings you all the way out here?" The anbu, Hideo, asked cautiously._

_Tobi smiled malevolently though it was hidden by his mask. "I heard there was a strong warrior out here and thought I'd test myself against him."_

_Hideo glared at Tobi, "Over my dead body!" _

_Tobi faked mild surprise as Hideo ran through hand seals that Tobi just mildly was interested in._

"_Wind Style: Hurricane Gust Jutsu!" _

_Tobi watched almost giddily as the blast hit him full impact and demolished the inside of the cabin and sent him flying straight through the small wall and onto the grassy knoll outside._

_As if to prove the weakness of the attack, Tobi got up from the debris and started stretching his arms and popping his neck. The look on the young anbu was almost priceless._

"_Geez kid, why'd you have to go and do that?" Tobi asked in a depressed voice before looking to his cloak. "You really made a mess of my cloak with that one!"_

_Hideo bit his tongue before smirking and charged at Tobi with surprising speed. However, it held no surprise for Tobi. Hideo made a slashing movement meant to slice his arm off with a kunai, but just as the kunai was about to do its job Tobi made his arm transparent causing Hideo to only slice the sleeve off of his cloak._

_Oh Tobi was having fun with this. The look on the young anbu's face was priceless. _

"_What? Did you really think I'd take another attack like that?" Tobi asked goofily._

"_Tch." Hideo smirked as he went for a quick jab with his left hand, but Tobi just avoided it. Upon evading it Hideo swiftly went into an upper kick with his right foot that Tobi blocked boredly with his right hand. The result was a surprise to Tobi as the force of the kick created enough wind pressure to blast him back a good thirty yards._

"_You've learned to use wind nature chakra alongside your Taijutsu skills. Pretty interesting." Tobi stated happily._

"_Tch." Hideo grimaced before charging the opponent._

_What ensued was a one-sided Taijutsu battle with Hideo attacking relentlessly with Tobi phasing out just when a punch was about to connect. He switched it up by throwing a close range B level genjutsu to confuse Tobi, but it had no effect whatsoever. This surprised the young anbu enough to back up and try to recalculate his opponent._

"_Who are you?!" He asked with aggravation._

"_I am Tobi," The akatsuki laughed evilly. It was time for playtime to end._

_Just as he was about to make a move against Hideo, an Eight-tailed Ox appeared before both of them. It was the size of a mountain and held an aura that would make even the strongest warrior want to crawl into a little hole and hide._

"_Finally came out to play with me?" Tobi laughed as he looked over his two opponents. "This might be fun!"_

_Tobi teleported behind Hideo with a right hook, as his fist impact into Hideo's back he used the moment to teleport him and Hideo up on top of the Bijuu's head. The impact finally registered into Hideo as Tobi had punched him straight in the kidney, which sent him to his knees. Tobi, using this time wisely, brought out some special paper seals and began placing them all over the Bijuu._

_Slowly, the Bijuu began losing chakra in his system, but Hideo had recovered from the attack and was sliding through hand signs. As he issued the last hand sign, Tobi dived off the beast and watched as the Bijuu's back was engulfed with flames, which to Tobi's irritation destroyed the paper seals and the Bijuu reverted back into its Jinchuuriki._

"_My seals!" Tobi yelled out taking his attention away from the fight for a second. That was the only second Hideo needed as he whipped an already ignited set of explosive tags around Tobi with some wires. They exploded around Tobi as pain registered in his body for the first time in a long while. Hideo had figured out the weakness to his transparency jutsu. If it was stuck to Tobi when he used the technique it would become transparent with him._

"_Now!" Hideo yelled as he jumped away. Tobi looked around confusedly before a tail came and whipped him across the face and cracking his mask. The Jinchuuriki had reverted to a half-demon form and created a successful combo attack in the midst of the tag trick._

"_Ouchie!" Tobi whined with a minor hint of irritation._

"_No more fun and games!" Tobi yelled. Hideo went wide eyed as he teleported to in front of his face. Tobi grabbed hold of his arm and yanked it out of place before snapping it with his foot._

_Hideo screamed out in pain as Tobi delivered a strong set of combos to his ribs. He could feel a couple of them had shattered. But he pushed the registry of the pain out of the way as he ducked and rolled under Tobi's legs as he let out a Grand Fireball Jutsu meant to incinerate him._

_Tobi dodged backward and to the Jinchuuriki and unleashed a taijutsu combo mix of kicks and seal placements. The seals slowly sucked all the chakra from his system, but for good measure he activated the Mangekyou Sharingan. In that instant the Jinchuuriki was defeated and only one was left._

_A kunai flew by his head which he dodged. Tobi allowed himself a laugh. "Still kicking huh?"_

_The young anbu allowed himself a chuckle at the line before smirking. Tobi was really beginning to hate that smirk. He decided a week's worth of torture was in the anbu's near future and activated his Mangekyou Sharingan again._

_It had started before he could even try to look away. What resulted was a week's worth of torture. Kunai stabbed into his gut repeatedly in an inferno of fire that scorched his very skin. Two hundred different types of tortures were used on him and when it was all over he looked down and realized that it was nothing but a genjutsu, and yet the pain from the torture hadn't gone away…he collapsed as his legs caved in underneath him._

"_You're out of your league," Tobi said with the first hint of seriousness he had shown during the course of the whole battle._

_Hideo coughed as blood dripped down his mouth. He chuckled as he pushed himself back up to a standing position, but it was deemed unnecessary as Tobi grabbed hold of his clothes from the front. Hideo closed his eyes to avoid Tobi's eye trick._

"_Won't work again, Tobi, now that I know you're an Uchiha." Hideo allowed himself a laugh at his situation. _

_The young anbu was gathering an extremely excessive a mount of chakra into his fist. He hurled a wide left hook at Tobi's face out of desperation, but Tobi just let it faze through him._

_Tobi was at a loss for what happened as he let the punch faze through him and watched as Hideo with a huge smirk on his face smashed his own fist straight into his chest. The impact caused by his Hurricane Fist Technique sent him flying away from the battle. He had calculated exactly what Tobi would counter with and used it to his advantage to escape._

"_Damn it,"_

* * *

"Uh…Tobi…?"

"I underestimated my opponent." Tobi pouted. "Maybe I'm getting a little rusty after all these years."

"…right…" Deidara rolled his eyes, "Well anyway looks like we need to go through the ritual, hmm." He declared to which Tobi just sighed and nodded.

* * *

The waiting room. It's always the tensest place inside a hospital. You don't know whether you'll ever get the chance to see that person you're visiting open his eyes again. At the moment that was the exact situation that Tayuya found herself in.

Hideo had been carried in hanging on by a mere thread of life and Tsunade was now in the operating room doing her best to bring him back from death's cold clutches. Naruto had been very quiet for a while now. Much like her, he was probably reflecting on the idea that people can be fine one minute and dead the next. Life was such a strange experience.

"Tayuya…no matter what happens…know that he did his best."

Tayuya let a single tear roll down her cheek before giving a stubborn reply, "Tch. Don't underestimate that bastard's stubbornness. You'll see…when he wakes up he'll be asking why the hell all the IV's are stuck in him and try to storm out of the hospital like he always does…"

To this day, Naruto Uzumaki has no idea what force of nature allowed him to make such an impulsive decision, but at that moment he didn't care what the consequences would be.

He wrapped his hands around Tayuya and gave her the most heartfelt hug that she had ever felt in her entire life. He told her that it was okay to be scared. Scared to lose a loved one. And at that moment Tayuya couldn't take it any longer…

"_Tayuya! That was supposed to be the Ox Sign not the Tiger Sign! Are you trying to fry my ass!"_

"_Oy Red. Let's go get some grub from Itsuki's restaurant. I could do with a free meal for once. You're too expensive."_

"_Always taking money from me without permission. You're acting really girly girl for some reason. It's starting to freak me out."_

"_Mission Time, Tayuya. Don't screw up or you get your head popped off!"_

"_Happy Birthday, Tayuya._

"_So tell me about that guy you met at the pub the other day? Come On! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!!!"_

"_Mind your fucking manners, god damn it!"_

She broke down in Naruto's arms…

**Author's Note: Oh god I am terrible. I leave a cliff hanger and then update and now it's just intensified the cliffhanger! God I know you all hate me. It's like what Kishimoto is doing right this very moment with Kakashi. Bastard...**

**I want some feedback for once, therefore I need you the readers to help me. Tell me what you think of Hideo Onji. Your answers may be a determining factor in whether he lives to fight another day. Or maybe I'm just messing with you guys and it won't matter either way. Haha. This has been a cliff hanger for a little while now I know, but I found a good place to stop and one of my readers told me that he/she didn't care if I didn't resolve the matter. They just wanted the next chapter out. Haha so you have that person to thank.**

**I have had many complaints over ways I've handled battles in the past, so I tried my hardest to remedy that situation in this chapter. I can't really say whether you will like this one any better, but I did try a little harder for your sake. I've literally been working weeks on this battle scene and re-edited it enough times that I am sick of it, so I hope you find it worthwhile at least.**

**I'll try not to take too long with the next chapter, but I'm not promising anything either. I don't have near as much time as I used to and probably won't get my time back until Spring Break or Summer Vacation. Being a college student is both the most stressful and the most interesting time of my life thus far.**

**Anyway, SORRY!!!! About the late update. Review and make me happy so I'll get the chapters out quicker. Believe it or not I set this kind of goal like thing for how many reviews I get, so when I see I have less reviews for the new chapter than the old one I get discouraged. So make sure to review. It is rather important.**

**I'll see you all when my next chapter rolls around. Peace Out.**


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